
Class £^rLL_ 

Gopyiiglitl^" 

CQFSRICHT DEPOSm 



/ 






THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



JSg tbe same Butbor. 

•• CONSTRUCTIVE DEMOCRACY ; the Economics of a 
Square Deal." 



" This admirable-work," — Louisville Courier-Journal. 

" Eminently modern and practical." — Boston Transcript. 

"The most important economic study since ' Progress and 
Poverty."— Owi West. 

" We should like to see it read and pondered by all journal- 
ists and congressmen." — Outlook, 

" Done with thoroughness and a scholarly insight into present 
day conditions." — Boston Globe. 

"Vigorously written, and by reason of its constant use of 
present day materials is made both interesting and inform- 
ing." — St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 



Crown 8vo. Cloth. $1.50 net. 




\VM. E. SMYTH E. 



THE 

CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

(NEW AND REVISED EDITION) 

ILLUSTRATED 



BY 

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 

AUTHOR OF " CONSTRUCTIVE DEMOCRACY," ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd 
1905 

All rights resemed 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 13 J 905 

Copyriirht Entry 
CLASS U. XXC. No. 

f 3 3¥SS^ 

COPY B. 



CoPTKiGHT, 1899, 1905, 
By WILLIAM E. 8MTTHE. 



First published elsewhere. New edition December, 1905. 



KorfoocU ^rrsB: 
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



ti- 
er 






TO 

MY WIFE 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Dedication iii 

"Emancipation" ix 

Foreword xi 

Introduction : On Going West, Young Man xv 



PART FIRST 
colonial expansion at home 

CHAPTER 

I. Greatness By Continental Conquest 3 

II. The Home-Building Instinct op the American 

People 12 

III. The Better Half of the United States .... 19 

IV. The Blessing of Aridity 30 

V. The Miracle of Irrigation 41 



PART SECOND 



real UTOPIAS OF THE ARID WEST 

I. The ]Mormon Commonwealth 51 

II. The Greeley Colony of Colorado 77 

III. The Evolution of Southern California .... 93 

IV. The Revolution on the Plains ....... 106 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

PART THIRD 

UNDEVELOPED AMERICA 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Empire State op The Pacific 121 

II. The New Day in Colorado 161 

III. The Pleasant Land op Utah 175 

IV. The Crude Strength op Idaho 185 

V. The Giant Washington 197 

VI. Oregon in Transition 205 

VII. The Rising State op Nevada 213 

VIII. The Unknown Land op Wyoming 221 

IX. The Prosperity op Montana 232 

X. The Awakening op New Mexico 238 

XI. The Budding Civilization of Arizona 248 



PART FOURTH 

the triumph op the movement 

I. The Rise of a New Cause 261 

II. On the Anvil op Congress 275 

III. Irrigation in the White House . 281 

IV. Uncle Sam's Young Men at Work 294 

V. Preparing Homes for the People 303 

Conclusion : Man's Partnership With God 327 



APPENDIX 



I. Note as to Methods op Irrigation 333 

II. The Newlands Bill and the Act of June 17, 1902. 342 



INDEX 351 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of the Author Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Flowing Well, Riverside Canal System, California. . . 12 ' 

The Desert Before Reclamation 24 -- 

Growth of Vegetation in Imperial Valley, California. 30 - 

Park at Riverside, California 42, 

Ranch at North Yakima, Washington 46 

Palestine and Salt Lake Valley, Utah 54 

California Contrast, Flowers and Snow at Pasadena . 94 
The Colorado Desert Before and After Irrigation .... 152v^ 

Views of the New Town of Imperial, California 154 ^ 

Irrigated Apricot Orchard, near Montrose, Colorado.. 166 ' '^ 

View on Gunnison River, Colorado 170 ^^ 

Mouth of Echo Canyon, and Weber River, Utah 180^'' 

Building a Government Canal in Nevada 214^ 

Where the Gates Were Lifted on the Truckee River, 

Nevada 216"^ 

Two Irrigation Statesmen and an Engineer 220' 

Eagle Dam Site, Rio Grande Project, New Mexico 242 v^ 

Arizona Alfalfa and Barley 250 ^ 

Irrigating a Young Orchard in Arizona 254 ■w''' 

Portrait of John Wesley Powell 260V' ^ 

A Sample op Government Works, Nevada 270 ^^ 

Portrait of Francis G. Newlands 276 . - 

Government Road-Building in Arizona 278 v 

vii 



viii ILLUSTRATIONS. 

FACING PAGE / 

Portrait of Theodork Roosevelt 283^ 

Government Cement Mill, Arizona 288 ^ 

Portrait of Ethan Allen Hitchcock 296 / — 

Portraits of Charles D. Walcott, Frederick H. 

Newell, C. E. Grunsky, and Gifford Pinchot 298'' 

Site of Roosevelt Dam, Arizona 308 

Colorado River at High Water 310 ^ 

Views of Klamath Project, Oregon 312 y 

A Government Tunnel in Nevada 316 

Works of Truckee-Carson Project, Nevada 318 v 



EMANCIPATION 

Tlie Nation reaches its hand into the Desert, 

And lo ! private monopoly in water and in land is scourged 

from that holiest of temples, — the place where men 

labor and build their homes ! 

The Nation reaches its hand into the Desert. 

The wasting floods stand back, the streams obey tlieir 

master, and the stricken forests spring to life again 

upon the forsaken mountains ! 

Tlie Nation reaches its hand into the Desert. 

The barred doors of the sleeping empire are flung wide 

open to the eager and the willing, that they may 

enter in and claim tl\eir heritage ! 

TJie Nation reaches its hand into the Desert. 

Tliat whicli lay beyond the grasp of the Individual yields 

to the hand of Associated Man. Great is the 

Achievement, — greater the Prophecy I 



FOREWORD 

In the summer of 1899, on a remote ranch in the 
desert country of Northeastern California, twelve miles 
from the nearest house (" and no one living there," as 
my wife caustically remarked) I put the finishing 
touches to the fiirst edition of this book. Now, six years 
to a day, in my library at San Diego, with its seaward 
gable commanding a view of a populous town and a wide 
landscape of bay, ocean, mountains, islands, and the bold 
promontory of Point Loma, I finish my revision of a new 
and enlarged edition which brings the story of Arid 
America down to date. 

There is a curious coincidence between the changed 
scene and conditions of my work at these two periods 
and the change in the fortunes of the Cause with which 
I deal. The irrigation movement of 1899 was compara- 
tively remote from the great heart of the Nation, domi- 
ciled in distant deserts, a long way from "the nearest 
house" (and almost "nobody lived there," too), while 
the irrigation movement of 1905 is planted in the heart 
of populous towns and intimately related to the com- 
merce of the world. 

Six years ago national irrigation was a dream ; to-day, 
the dream has come true. Where the subject interested 
one man at the time the book was first written, it prob- 
ably interests at least a thousand men at the time when it 
is re-written. 

xi 



FOKEWOED 

The green fruit has ripened on the bough of time in 
the sunshine of events. In the name of all my comrades, 
living and dead, I thank God that this is so ! And yet it 
is those who have lived nearest to tliis growth of institu- 
tions who realize most keenly that we have but crossed 
the threshold of our new epoch. There is a vast work 
for us yet to do, there will be a vast work for us to pass 
on to our sons, and for our sons to pass on to their sons. 
The inspiring thing is that a point has been reached 
when the real builders of the world — the men who clear 
the brush, level the land, plow, plant, cultivate, and 
reap — can help in a practical way, because their speeches 
and books and proclamations are written on the face of 
the imperishable earth. 

We are ready for the homeseeker. The fate of our 
cause is in his hands. If he fail, all the labor of the years 
comes to naught and the great hope dies in the morning 
of its promise. But if he succeed, no imagination can set 
bounds to the achievement upon which we have entered 
nor picture the civilization which will rise in the waste 
places of the West. 

" Arid America ! " exclaimed Joaquin Miller, " we 
have watered it with our tears ! " And so we have. 
Now we are to build it in toil, in pain, in patience, hum- 
bling ourselves in the dust of failure, yet moving ever 
forward in that pathway of co-operation and brother- 
hood of which the ISTewlands Irrigation Law is the most 
shining guidepost thus far erected by the genius of our 
statesmanship. 

This book is for all optimistic Americans, but especi- 
ally, it is for those who have the courage of their optim- 

xii 



FOREWOED 

ism — for the homeseekers -who, under the leadership of 
the paternal Nation, are to grapple with the desert, trans- 
late its gray barrenness into green fields and gardens, 
banish its silence with the laughter of children. This is 
the breed of men who make the Eepublic possible, who 
keep the lamp of faith burning through the night of cor- 
rupt commercialism, and who bear the Ark of the Cove- 
nant to the Promised Land. 

In the following pages I have endeavored to show the 
relation between the earliest settlers in America and the 
new army which is now moving toward our Western 
lands; the peculiar environment of the arid region and 
the influence which it will exert on its civilization; the 
lessons to be learned from the more notable of the early 
pioneer settlements in Colorado, Utah, and California; 
the natural advantages and present development of the 
great States and Territories between the Missouri River 
and the Pacific Ocean; the beginning, progress, and 
triumph of the national irrigation movement; the work 
of the remarkable corps of young men organized in the 
United States Reclamation Service; and, finally, the 
spirit of what is being done by the partnership of God 
and mankind in finishing one important corner of the 
w^orld. 

In another work, published almost simultaneously with 
this, I deal with some of the things which ought to be 
done to enable the Nation to utilize the surplus energies 
of our growing national family. There is a wide and 
inviting field for constructive statesmanship to cultivate 
before we can hope to proceed in the best way with the 
building of the Unfinished Republic. But something has 

xiii 



FOREWOED 

already been done, and it is that which is the subject of 
the present volume. 

I hope the book will be of value to several different 
kinds of people — to the investor, the tourist, the eco- 
nomist, the legislator, the reader of history and travel, 
and those interested in American resources and institu- 
tions generally — but most of all I hope it will be of some 
practical use to the men and women who are looking for 
homes under the blue sky of the West. 

W. E. S. 
San Diego, California. 



INTRODUCTION 



ON GOING WEST, TOUNG MAN 

Many persons ask if I adrise them to go West. I in- 
variably reply that it depends upon their temperament. 
For there is a Western temperament, and there is an 
Eastern temperament. Tlie person who possesses the 
former will never be really happy in the East ; the person 
who possesses the latter will never be happy in the West. 

The man with the Western temperament loves the un- 
built house and the virgin soil — the vast resources await- 
ing the conquest of human genius and human labor. He 
wants to live in a land where things are being done, and 
where they are to be done yet more in the future. He 
wants to have a part in doing them, — wants to build the 
house, plant the ivy, turn rivers out of their courses, 
drive the desert back incli by inch, carry railroads 
through unheard-of mountain passes, write constitutions, 
found cities and states. 

The man with the Eastern temperament prefers his 
civilization ready-made. He loves the old home, the old 
familiar names and streets, the old associations. He 
loves the ivy, too, but wants to know that it was planted 
by his great-grandfather. He wants to feel that cities 
and states were founded, and constitutions written, by 

XV 



INTEODUCTION 

men who were much wiser than he, because they lived 
and died so many generations ago. When this man gets 
West he is homesick. But his brother of the Western 
temperament works with fierce joy. He is worth ten 
times as much to himself and to society as he would have 
been if he had always remained on his native heath. 

It is my own feeling (for one is ruled, after all, by 
one's inherited prejudices and pride of home) that the 
happiest of all fates is to be born in Massachusetts and to 
live in California ! This is the feeling common to West- 
ern men of Eastern antecedents. They vary the locali- 
ties to suit their birthplace and present residence, but the 
spirit of the observation remains intact. They are by no 
means ashamed of the old home. On the contrary, they 
love and revere it and to revisit it is a delightful experi- 
ence. But it no longer satisfies their souls, while to stay 
there long is to hunger for the sight of the great, rugged 
mountains, for the smell of the desert, for the touch of 
the unfailing sunshine. 

If you feel like that, young man, go West ! The Un- 
finished Republic is calling to you. By all means an- 
swer, " Here am I ! " You may not be successful in a 
pecuniary way, yet you will never regret the move. And 
if you yield to the temptation to go " back East," you will 
never again be quite satisfied. You will think of the 
wide landscapes and of the freedom of which they are the 
sign and symbol, and your heart will quickly traverse 
the hills and prairies, to nestle in the shadows of the 
Rockies or the Sierras and abide forever. If it does not, 
then your temperament is not Western, after all, and you 
should have lived and died in the land of your ancestors. 

xvi 



INTEODUCTION 

A word to the married man: you may have the West- 
ern temperament, but how about your wife? Her feel- 
ings are entitled to consideration, and the time to think 
of them is before you detach yourself from the old home 
and its associations. I remember that when I was seek- 
ing the assistance of Edward Everett Hale in organizing 
a new Plymouth, ten years ago, the dear old man turned 
to his wife and said, with a twinkle in his eye, " Mother, 
I believe I will go out to Idaho and grow up with the 
country." She replied, " No, you will stay right here." 
And, indeed, his own rebuke of the jest was engraved 
upon the stone above his fireplace : 

" Old wood to burn, old books to read, old friends to 
keep." Dr. Hale is one of the rare souls who can pre- 
serve a thoroughly Western temperament while living in 
an Eastern environment. His influence and fame long 
since went West and grew up with the country. 

But to return to the married man who thinks of mov- 
ing to improve his condition in life. I hope he will con- 
sult the wishes of his " better half." It always seemed to 
me that the Pilgrim Fathers were glorified at the ex- 
pense of the Pilgrim Mothers, and I have often wondered 
how the Mothers felt as they looked upon the receding 
shores of Old England. The true Western man has no 
need to ask how the Fathers felt, for he is moved by the 
same sense of forcfatherhood which nerved the arms of 
the Pilgrims when they went forth to fell the forests and 
make clearings for their homes. 

I venture to say that the average man likes the West. 
The newness, the bigness, the essential masculinity of 
the sparsely-peopled wilderness, and of the tasks to which 

xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

it invites him, appeal to his pride and strength and kindle 
his imagination. In a way, he is born again. He turns 
over a new page in his life history. He does not intend 
to repeat the old mistakes, and he starts with a fund of 
knowledge which he did not have when he began his 
earlier career. He realizes that his relation to the 
natural resources of the region is like that enjoyed by 
the men of a century ago in the place whence he came. 
They planted hamlets which grew into cities and thereby 
enriched their descendants; lie will do the same. His 
heart swells as he thinks of his own and his children's 
future. 

But if this is the feeling of the average man who goes 
West, it is not necessarily shared by the average woman. 
She is more sensitive to her surroundings. It may be 
that she has less imagination — that she cannot see the 
fields and towns which are to be, through the clouds of 
dust that come swirling from the treeless land. Or it may 
be — and this is more likely — that she gets the heavier 
end of the burdens peculiar to the pioneer. " It is easier 
for a man to get a living in the West, than in the East," 
one lady said to me, " but women have to scratch harder 
here than they do back home." It is not difficult to un- 
derstand how this may be true. The man sees his oppor- 
tunity in the very fact that he has come to a rich region 
which is undeveloped, so that he can skim the cream of 
its advantages; but the lack of its development deprives 
the woman of many of the conveniences which she form- 
erly knew. It is undeniable that the household duties 
falling to the woman's lot, whether she live in the coun- 
try or the town, are lightened as civilization increases. 

xviii 



INTEODUCTION 

Of course, the hardships of pioneering nowadays are 
not like those of earlier generations, yet it would be quite 
misleading to say that the women who come to make 
homes in the new settlements of the West can hope to 
enjoy all the advantages to which they were accustomed 
in their Eastern lives. 

It is in its natural resources that the West excels, not 
in its artificial refinements, and the lack of the latter 
is much more keenly felt by women than by men. Nor 
is this deficiency seen only in connection with house- 
hold work. It is felt on the social side of life. It is not 
that organized society is so different, though naturally 
the church, the school, the facilities for shopping, and 
all that attaches to these interests, are in a more primi- 
tive state in a new country than in an old one; but it 
is the fact that the settler has come to a neighborhood 
not only deficient in numbers and peopled with stran- 
gers, but without traditions. I have heard women say, 
" There is nothing to talk about, and nobody to talk to 
if there were." This is by no means literally true, yet 
it conveys an inkling of the truth. 

It is only another way of saying that the old friends 
and old associations mean more to women than to men, 
or that men are quicker to make new friends and find 
enjoyment in new associations than are their wives and 
daughters. Perhaps the reader can now understand 
why men take more kindly to the West than do their 
women-folk, or, at least, why the latter require more 
time to grow into their new environment. 

It would be quite misleading to leave the impression 

that women never like the wnlderness. As a matter of 

xix 



INTRODUCTION 

fact, many of them adore it and would not willingly 
exchange it for the life of large cities or older agricul- 
tural communities. As I write, I hear of a young lady 
who has enjoyed the advantages of Boston and New 
York, of San Francisco and Los Angeles, but who resists 
the appeals of her parents to come out of the desert 
wild where she went for a brief vacation, already length- 
ened to months, and where she has previously spent 
weeks which she enthusiastically describes as " the only 
time I ever really lived." She writes: 

" When I am in the city, my happiness depends on people 
and society, but out here in the deserts and mountains the 
country itself is satisfying. Perhaps you don't understand what 
I mean, but I do." 

I understand precisely what she means, and so do all 
men and women who turn their faces toward the clean, 
beautiful, unpeopled wilderness with the thrill of a 
lover's heart. 

In what has been said I have been thinking chiefly 
of the millions who will come to conquer the waste places 
in real pioneer fashion, making settlements where there 
is now nothing but scattered ranches or great tracts of 
sage-brush land. These observations by no means apply to 
life in the larger towns or even in the older agricultural 
communities. The town life of the West is up to date; 
the< country life, where resources have been quite thor- 
oughly developed, not only up to date, but far ahead 
of the time when compared with Eastern standards. 
Take such communities as Riverside and Eedlands, in 
Southern California, for example, and you find social 
advantages which cannot be matched anywhere else in 

XX 



INTEODUCTION 

the world. In later pages we shall see what these ad- 
vantages are and how they were attained. 

But the man who is going West must remember that 
he cannot begin where other people ended. That is to 
say, he cannot have the benefits of pioneering without 
its drawbacks. If he wants a ready-made civilization, 
he must pay the price. The men who went to Eiverside 
a generation ago, or to Redlands fifteen years ago, were in 
at the birth of things. They planted the seed, bore the 
heat and burden of the day, and reaped the reward. 
You may be able to buy one of their perfect homes and 
orchards, and enter immediately into the enjoyment of 
their social advantages, but you must pay a snug little 
fortune for the privilege. The alternative is to begin 
where they began and grind your grist in patience. No 
way has been discovered by which a man can get some- 
thing for nothing, even in the glorious West. But for 
the man who is not doing as well as he ought in the 
East, the New West is the land of opportunity. 

We shall see in subsequent pages the vast margin of 
undeveloped resources in all our Western States and 
Territories, and how these resources call loudly for men 
and capital to come and make use of them. We shall also 
see how the Nation itself is beginning to do certain 
things vital to the growth of civilization, yet far beyond 
the reach of individual enterprise, and how this public 
policy sets a new star of hope in the sky of our common 
humanity. Just here we are dealing with individual op- 
portunities, and the most significant of these consists in 
the fact that far more may he done with small capital in 
the West than in the East. 

xxi 



INTRODUCTION 

To begin with, land is cheaper, though richer and more 
productive. This is the reason that many shrewd farm- 
ers are selling their property in the Middle States and 
beginning life anew between the Rockies and the Sierras. 
Of the advantages arising from irrigation the reader will 
get his fill if he persists to the end of my story. For the 
present let it be said in a word that the man who 
wants to win an independence from the soil will ac- 
complish more with a given investment of capital, energy, 
and time in the Irrigated West than anywhere else in 
the world. He should choose his precise location wisely 
and it is the object of this book to assist him in doing 
so; but, in a general way, his true policy is to enlist in 
the peaceful army which is engaged in the conquest of 
Arid America. 

What has been said of land is true of all other busi- 
ness opportunities. The dollar will go farther in any 
direction in the undeveloped West than in the older sec- 
tions of the country. What can a man do with, say, 
twenty-five thousand dollars, in Boston, New York, 
Chicago, or even in Eastern cities of the second or third 
rank? Can he compete with the department stores, the 
great factories, or the consolidated banks? 

In the Far West, one man possessing this sum, or a 
number of men having it among them, may readily be- 
come a considerable financial power. They can even 
start a national bank, and they will be surprised to find 
how the deposits flow in from a wide range of sparsely 
settled country, and surprised again to learn with what 
security and profit they can loan the capital at their 
disposal. Many experienced bankers have been turned 

xxii 



INTRODUCTION 

out of comfortable berths by bank consolidations in 
New England and elsewhere during the past few years. 
Nearly all of them have moderate means or an ac- 
quaintance and standing which would enable them to 
command a reasonable working capital. Instead of being 
embittered by the change which has overtaken them, 
they ought to be inspired by the field of usefulness it 
opens to them. The New West yearns for such men — for 
their capital, their knowledge, their training, their proved 
integrity. It will give them a chance to become leaders 
where they were formerly but followers. 

The same is true of merchants and, in less degree, of 
manufacturers. Business is done on a smaller scale; 
the country is growing enormously, and this growth will 
continue indefinitely; new towns and agricultural dis- 
tricts are springing up where silence and desolation have 
reigned for ages; the region is measurably free from 
domination by great capitalists. Doubtless the time will 
come when the same economic forces which closed most 
of the commercial avenues to small capital in the East 
will produce the same result in the West, but it has not 
come yet. There is probably another generation of pros- 
perity for enterprising men who follow the tide of set- 
tlement to the Western valleys and mountains. 

In dwelling upon this thought I am reminded of a 
friend who inherited a few thousand dollars from his 
father, went West, and became a successful lumber mer- 
chant. When I last met him he was congratulating him- 
self upon how much he had done with his small patri- 
mony, because he had come West while it was yet in its 
day of small things. " I thank God I was bom in New 

xxiii 



INTKODUCTION 

England/' he said in a fine burst of pride, and then, 
with a smile of satisfaction, he added, " and I thank God 
I had sense enough to get up and leave it ! " In this 
connection, it is perhaps worth while to remark that 
New England is no longer a mere geographical term. It 
is a certain spirit of civic pride and individual enterprise. 
In this sense, New England is very much in evidence in 
the Far West. Its sons go forth to conquer the waste 
places. They plant their traditions, and raise a crop of 
institutions. 

A word should be said to those who fear that their 
children will not have educational advantages in the 
West. The fear is quite groundless, for every Western 
State and Territory is lavish in its expenditure for ed- 
ucation. Their schools are magnificently endowed with 
the Nation's gift of public land, and the popular pride 
in their development is boundless. Even the drawbacks 
of attending school in country districts are, when rightly 
viewed, seen to be more advantageous than otherwise. 
They make the fibre of strong men and women, for they 
drive the children into the open air, generally on horse- 
back. If you are inclined to be pessimistic about the 
future of the Eepublic, just watch a cavalcade of West- 
ern boys and girls as they gallop to school through sun- 
shine or rain, and you will find your faith renewed. 
These strong-limbed, sun-browned, self-reliant young- 
sters are the citizens of the future. You need not fear 
that they will fail us in time of need. 

But it is not only in the common schools that the 
West is strong. It is strong in its colleges and universi- 
ties, and stronger yet in the men who stand at the head 

xxiv 



INTKODUCTION 

of them. They are the men of the Forward Look. They 
are clearing the intellectual forests, rooting up the social 
sage-brush, irrigating the arid wastes of politics and 
economics. Ah, what a harvest they are preparing for 
the future — the David Starr Jordans, the Benjamin Ide 
Wheelers, the George A. Gateses, and the rest of the big- 
brained, big-hearted brood who are training the rising 
generation in the bright sunshine of the Pacific Coast ! 

A new era is dawning on the Western half of the 
continent. The rough edges of pioneer life have worn 
off, and speculation is giving place to sober industry. 
The national irrigation policy lends an element of cer- 
tainty, of stability, which was sadly lacking in the 
past. Wlien Uncle Sam puts his hand to a task, we 
know it will be done. Not even the hysteria of hard 
times can frighten him away from the work. When he 
■waves his hand toward the desert and says, "Let there 
he water! " we know that the stream will obey his com- 
mand. We know more than that — know when the water 
will come, how much land will be reclaimed, how many 
homes will be builded. We can even calculate with 
precision how many towns will spring up and where 
they will be, and the railroad actuary can figure out 
the traffic of the future. 

There never was such a time as now for the young 
man to go West and grow up with the country. It is 
no longer a wild adventure, but the sane planning of 
a career. The private capitalist, even after we have 
wooed and won him, may change his mind, or lose his 
fortune, or death may arrest him and wreck a thousand 
hopes. But the public capitalist is dependable. He 

XXV 



INTKODUCTION 

does not change his mind, or lose his fortune, and he 
lives on with the generations. This capitalist has been 
enlisted — the United States of America, Unlimited ! 

Go West, young man! That is, if you are the rigid 
young man, with the Western temperament, and — if your 
wife is willing! 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



part jfirst 
COLONIAL EXPANSION AT HOME 

" In 1850 she [the United States] passed Austria. In 1860 it was 
her motberiand to whom she held out her hand lovingly as she 
swept by. In 1870 she overtook and passed France. In 1880 she 
had outstripped the German Empire ; and now, in 1890, she is left 
without a competitor to contend with except giant Russia. All the 
others she has left behind. Another decade, and the sound of the 
rushing Republic close behind will astonish even Russia, with its 
eighty-six millions in Europe. Yet another decade, and it, too, 
like all the rest, will fall behind to watch for a time the new nation 
in advance, until it forges so far forward as to pass beyond her ken, 
when five hundred millions, every one an American, and all boast- 
ing a common citizenship, will dominate the world — for the world's 
good." — Andkew Carnegie, Triumphant Democracy. 



CHAPTER I 

GKEATNESS BY CONTINENTAL CONQUEST 

The economic greatness of the United States is the 
fruit of a policy of peaceful conquest over the resources 
of a virgin continent. Without this great item of raw 
material, the finished product which the world acknowl- 
edges in the industrial America of to-day would have 
been impossible. 

The true career of the American people as a race of 
empire-builders dates not from the founding of James- 
town, New Amsterdam, and Plymouth, but from the 
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and the subsequent 
inauguration of George Washington as the first President 
of the United States, The early settlers were merely 
European sentinels standing guard over a treasure of 
continental magnitude which they neither compre- 
hended nor appreciated. The tobacco-raisers of Vir- 
ginia, the fur-traders of New York, and the religious 
enthusiasts of New England had no conception of a 
national destiny or mission. They looked backward to 
the civilization whence they had come, rather than for- 
ward to the conquest and subjugation of the mightier 
empire on whose eastern shores they had set their reluc- 
tant feet. 

Only at the close of the successful war for indepen- 

8 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

dence did the world begin to realize that the American 
was to be the master of the new continent for all time, 
and that his rule must move westward as naturally and 
inevitably as the sun in its course. Only when the new 
government, hewn out with the sword and cemented 
with the blood of its citizens, had been finally and firmly 
established, did the heterogeneous elements in the 
sparsely settled original States crystallize into a national 
spirit and a national character. From that hour the 
material development of the New World began in earnest. 
The people labored as with the vim and courage of him 
who works for himself. Men began to dream of an 
America which should be richer and more populous and 
powerful than even Europe. 

The war was over — the war was begun ! England had 
been shaken off by force of arms, and the other Euro- 
pean ties would be loosed by the arts of diplomacy ; but 
it remained to wage war on the forest, the plain, the 
desert, and the mountain, and to create a better civil- 
ization than the world had seen. What millions of men 
and billions of dollars were employed and rewarded in 
the process — what workshops, and railroads, and farming 
districts were created in the wilderness — what cities, 
with swarming thousands of inhabitants, with homes 
and colleges and hospitals, were erected in the midst of 
the primeval silence — what States were carved from the 
woods and prairies — what unexpected commerce, borne 
in undreamed-of steamships, was sent to whiten the un** 
explored inland seas ! 

It is in the answer to these questions rather than in 
the poet's pjean to democracy that the true explanation 
of the economic progress of the nation will be found. 

4 



CONTINENTAL CONQUEST 

It is not to be denied that the fact that the United 
States was heralded throughout the world as a ''free 
country" attracted millions of immigrants, nor that 
popular government and complete immunity from the 
demands of royal tribute left enterprise unhampered to 
a degree hitherto unknown. But a vast commerce can 
no more find sustenance solely in the written constitu- 
tion of a country than a starving prospector in the 
mountains can satisfy his appetite with scenery. 

It seems worth wliile to lay strong emphasis upon this 
point, because the somewhat general acceptance of the 
notion that America is the product of its institutions, 
rather than that its institutions are the product of 
America, has obscured the causes of past prosperity and 
belittled the importance of our undeveloped resources. 
Not until this fact is understood and acknowledged 
is it possible to comprehend, even vaguely, the incal- 
culable importance of the undeveloped regions in the 
western half of the United States. 

At the close of the Eevolution the United States con- 
sisted of a fringe of settlements mostly confined to the 
Atlantic coast and the banks of important rivers on the 
eastern slope of the Alleghanies. Nominally, the nation- 
al domain extended westward to the Mississippi river, 
but practically there was no development beyond the 
thirteen original States. Even there the natural resour- 
ces of the country had scarcely been touched. Boston 
had a population of about eighteen thousand. New York 
of about thirty thousand, Philadelphia of about thirty- 
five thousand, Baltimore of about fifteen thousand. 
Kichmond, Charleston, and Savanuah, though of some 
importance politically, were mere straggling hamlets. 

6 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Detroit, St. Louis, and New Orleans were French out- 
posts in the wilderness. Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, 
and Chicago; Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake, 
and San Francisco — these and scores of other cities now 
populous and powerful — were hidden in the womb of 
time. Of the country between the Alleghanies and the 
Mississippi far less was known than the world now knows 
of Africa. The vast domain lying between the Father 
of Waters and the Pacific Ocean was neither as well ex- 
plored nor as perfectly comprehended as the Arctic 
region is to-day. 

When the men of the new Kepublic turned their backs 
on the Old World, in the double sense of politics and in- 
dustry, and faced the continental opportunity which 
awaited them, they entered upon the fiercest war of con- 
quest in all history. And the spoils of tliat war were to 
be in proportion to the magnificence of the task. 

The first effort at the subjugation of the wilderness 
was directed to the fields and the streams. The forest 
clearings were extended that agriculture might find room 
for expansion. The trees felled in the process were float- 
ed in the rivers to saw-mills driven by the current. The 
logs, transformed to lumber, supplied the material for 
millions of comfortable homes. In the mean time, the 
new farms fed the growing population of the towns, 
while a myriad of workshops, improved by inventions of 
which a robust necessity was the prolific mother, con- 
sumed and manufactured the textile materials from field 
and pasture. 

The step from the crude employments of the frontier 
to the manifold occupations of a modern industrial life 
was easy and natural. Fostered by a generous policy of 

6 



CONTINENTAL CONQUEST 

protection, and blessed by long years of peace, the work 
of development went on from generation to generation. 
In New England the raw material on wliich the workmen 
labored in fashioning a civilization was poorer than else- 
where. And yet it was on that sterile soil, in the midst 
of those rocks and hills, that industrial pre-eminence was 
first to be achieved. A citizen of Massachusetts once 
made the just boast that " not one drop of water flows 
from our hills to the sea until its power has been three 
times multiplied by the mill wheels." Every stream was 
lined with factories, nearly every town had its peculiar 
industries and its growing crowds of skilled laborers, 
supporting the stores and shops with their trade, and 
filling the schools with their children. 

Not only in New England, which owed its serious en- 
ergy to the example and character of its founders, and 
its fierce industrial enthusiasm to a system of free labor, 
but equally in New York, in New Jersey, in Delaware, 
in Pennsylvania, and southward to the Floridian penin- 
sula, the army of labor marched on with irresistible ad- 
vance. It scaled the crests of the Alleghanies and opened 
yet greater valleys to the energy of men. It tunnelled 
into the earth and brought up the hidden stores of coal 
and iron ore. It tapped the subterranean reservoirs of 
natural gas and oil. 

With the rapid growth of a many-sided economic life 
the need of improved facilities for internal transportation 
arose and grew yearly more urgent. The natural water- 
courses, navigated by rafts and sailing craft, did not long 
suffice. The army of labor was set at work in building 
great highways and digging canals. Then came the 
steamboat, and, finally, the railroad with its iron horse. 

7 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Thus it was that the work of taming the wilderness 
went on with increasing fervor. Thus it was that thirty- 
two new States were added to the original thirteen. 
Thus it was that the national population Avas increased 
fourteen-fold, and that cities rivalling the greatest urban 
centres in the Old World, in size and wealth and power, 
were developed on the site of the colonial villages of the 
early days. Thus it Avas that the Republic was able to 
welcome, and to absorb into its apparently insatiable in- 
dustrial system, the millions of immigrants who flocked 
to its shores. 

During these days of rapid material expansion over 
new areas, Uncle Sam was the proprietor of the most gigan- 
tic employment bureau on earth. He had enough work 
for his own prodigious family of sons, and for the over- 
flow of all the families across the sea. He offered the 
highest wages in the world-wide market. He distribu- 
ted his abounding prosperity through all channels of 
trade, all classes of industry, all grades of society. He 
made men and communities rich first by employing 
their energies in the conversion of the wilderness into a 
civilization, and paying them roundly for the work ; 
then by the rise in values, or " unearned increment," 
which comes with population and development ; finally, 
by the premium, or interest, upon capital thus acquired. 
All this was the logical fruit of a policy of continental 
conquest bravely undertaken, magnificently achieved. 

Behold the story of national prosperity in the form of 
a few clear-cut figures, divested of all rhetorical cloth- 
ing : In a little more than one hundred years the area of 
farms increased from sixty-five thousand square miles to 
over one million square miles. The number of persons 

8 



CONTINENTAL CONQUEST 

engaged in the agricultural industry in 1900 was 10,438,- 
219, — more than two and one-half times the entire popu- 
lation in 1790. In acres the total amount of land 
classed as farms by the last census was 841,201,546, of 
which 414,793,191 acres were under actual cultivation, 
the rest being woodlands. The number of individual 
farms was 6,739,657. The annual product was worth 
$3,764,177,706. "In ten years," says Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie, in his inspiring book, Triumphant Democracy, 
" a territory larger than Britain, and almost equal in 
extent to the entire area of France and Germany, was 
added to the farm area of America." 

Marvellous as this statement is, it exhibits but one 
item in the record of continental conquest which con- 
ferred such phenomenal prosperity upon the American 
people in the past. Agriculture is the basis of civiliza- 
tion, and upon the foundation so quickly and thoroughly 
laid, the new nation hastened to erect the superstructure 
of a complex industrial life. The existence of an enor- 
mous population on the farms furnished a great field 
for manufactures. This industry now employs between 
five and six million workmen, who annually receive and 
expend over two billion dollars in wages and create an 
annual product worth thirteen billion dollars. 

Agriculture and manufactures — both finished prod- 
ucts wrought by millions of workmen from the raw 
materials of the new continent — combined in demanding 
the most extensive arrangements for internal transporta- 
tion ever provided on the face of the earth. The total 
railroad mileage at the last census was one hundred and 
ninety-four thousand three hundred miles, which is more 

9 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

than that of all European countries combined. Of this 
vast mileage, forty-eight per cent, was built before 
1880, thirty-eight per cent, between 1880 and 1890, and 
fourteen per cent, between 1890 and 1900. "When it is 
remembered that each of these miles stands for about 
fifty thousand dollars expenditure — the cost of construc- 
tion and equipment — and that the work employed an 
army of laborers and skilled artisans, who in turn con- 
sumed great quantities of agricultural and manufactured 
products, it is not difficult to realize that the railroad 
development contributed largely to the national pros- 
perity in the past. It was, of course, the direct result of 
the great process of material conquest which was 
going on. 

To the same cause was due the employment of nearly 
five million people in trade and transportation; of a 
million and a quarter in professional services; and of 
nearly four hundred thousand in mining. The grand 
result is seen in the fact that the national population 
grew from less than four millions in 1790 to more than 
seventy-six millions in 1900, while the total wealth 
mounted to the incomprehensible sum of ninety-four 
billion dollars. 

Such are the stupendous results of the labors of a great 
people applied to the resources of a virgin continent. 
Other people have possessed energy and genius, and two 
of the European nations have enjoyed the blessings of 
self-government. If republican institutions would alone 
guarantee such results in the future, it is hardly to be 
imagined that the sternest monarchy could withstand 
the demand for their adoption. But the transcendent 

10 



CONTINENTAL CONQUEST 

factor in the result was the continental expanse of mar- 
vellous resources awaiting the labor and genius of man. 

Can there be any question that the abounding pros- 
perity of the American people during the first century 
of their national life was due to this luminous fact? 
Can there be any reasonable doubt that if the policy of 
material conquest over new areas can find another field 
on which to operate, and that if it be entered upon with 
the old vigor and faith, it will confer another century of 
prosperity upon the nation so fortunately endowed? 



CHAPTER II 

THE HOME-BUILDING INSTINCT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

Speaking in broad terms, there have been three great 
eras of colonization in the United States. All of these 
eras have been well defined, intelligible, and eventful. 
They peopled successively the Atlantic coast, the trans- 
Alleghany region from Lakes to Gulf, and the valley of 
the Mississippi. Taken together, they made virtually 
complete the conquest of Eastern America, and in Eastern 
America over ninety per cent, of the national population 
dwells to-day. 

A study of these historic movements reveals a striking 
fact. It is a fact which throws a flood of light on the 
American character, explaining much that has occurred 
in the past and furnishing secure ground npon which 
to base predictions of much that is to hapjien in the 
future. The American colonist, from Plymouth in 
Massachusetts to Plymouth in Idaho, has fixed his eyes 
on one star, which has shone out serene and steady 
through the clouds of religious persecution, of war, and 
of economic strife. That star stood for home. To build 
a home for himself and his children, to live there at 
peace with his neighbors and the world, to make better 
institutions for average humanity — this, when the sub- 
ject is viewed as a whole, is seen to have been the con- 

12 




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THE IIOME-BUILDING INSTINCT 

sistent aim of American colonization from tlie begin- 
ning. 

There are a few exceptions to be noted, but they are 
not of sufficient importance to affect the general result. 
Such exceptions are the settlement of California, and of 
certain localities in the Rocky Mountains, during periods 
of excitement following the discovery of gold. Another 
instance Avas the settlement of Kansas as a means of 
preserving the equilibrium between the free and the slave 
States. But these are isolated instances, of far more 
moment in an historical than in a numerical sense. The 
settlers of the United States have been moved by very 
different instincts and motives than those which im- 
pelled the Romans, the Normans, and Danes to settle at 
different periods in Britain. The great movements of 
population in the Middle Ages were armed conquests 
for spoils, and power, and martial glory. Those, indeed, 
were the ruling motives among Europeans and Asiatics 
until comparatively recent times. When these motives 
ceased to operate, they were succeeded by another which 
was equally sordid, even if more humane. This was the 
lust for trade or for sudden riches. This it was which 
impelled the settlement of Australasia by the English, 
of the Spice Islands by the Dutch, of South America by 
the Portuguese, of Cuba by the Spanish, of Africa by all 
of these and by the French and Germans as well. Thus 
the hosts which swarmed out of Europe to make new 
settlements all over the earth were principally marshalled 
under the flag of avarice. It was far different with the 
men who, at various periods during the last three hundred 
years, conquered the soil of the United States and ex- 
tended the frontiers of its civilization. 

13 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The settlement of the New World was largely iuauga- 
rated by those who fled from religious persecution. But 
it cannot be said on that account that their ruling mo- 
tive was not the desire to enjoy the security of a home. 
Religious sentiment lies very close to the hearth-stone. 
Upon its human side, at least, it has nothing in common 
with politics. Still less is it related to the struggle for 
gain. It was because they could not live at peace in 
Europe, because they could not be certain of life or 
tenancy in any one place, and therefore could not ac- 
cumulate a competence for their children, that the relig- 
ious enthusiasts fled over the sea. The Puritan in Mass- 
achusetts, the Baptist in Rhode Island, the Quaker in 
Pennsylvania, and the Catholic in Maryland, looked less 
passionately upon their spires and crosses than upon the 
babies in their cradles, the vegetables in their gardens, 
and the smoke which curled from their chimneys. 

It is true that there were many fanatics in the sev- 
enteenth and previous centuries to whom religion was 
dearer than home ; but it was not the axes of these 
fanatics that felled the American forests. Their devoted 
spirits were freed at the stake, or at the block, or their 
poor bodies festered in foul prisons. It was the element 
whose love of home and kindred was too powerful to 
permit them to suffer martyrdom, even though their 
convictions forbade them to eschew their religious prac- 
tices, who inaugurated the first era of colonization on 
these shores. Theirs are the first footprints in our his- 
tory, and they lead straight to the home and the fire- 
side. 

The second real era of colonization came with the 
end of the Revolution. Previous to that event the 

14 



i 



THE HOME-BUILDING INSTINCT 

trans-Alleghany country was but vaguely known as a 
whole. Daniel Boone had, indeed, built his cabin in the 
wilds of Kentucky, and adventurous spirits had begun 
to follow him from Virginia and the Caroliuas. James 
Eobertson and John Sevier, leading the hardy back- 
woodsmen of the Scotch Presbyterian faith, had begun 
tlie making of Tennessee. The French Creoles had 
lived for three generations in the slumberous repose of 
widely scattered villages in the Ohio Valley, and had 
gathered in some numbers at New Orleans. But the 
hour for the real movement of population to the west- 
ward of the mountains had not struck. When it did 
strike, it found the home-building instinct of the Amer- 
ican people instantly and passionately responsive to its 
summons. It was the returning veterans from the "War 
of Independence who lent the first great impulse to the 
new emigration. Hardened by years of out-door life, 
thoroughly weaned from the atmosphere of the town and 
the shop, finding their places on the farms largely filled 
by boys who, during their absence, had grown to self- 
reliance, if not to manhood, these war-worn veterans 
were not unwilling to transfer their battle-ground from 
the sea-coast to the wilderness, and to fight for homes 
as ardently as they had struggled for political indepen- 
dence. 

During the next thirty years the population of Ken- 
tucky leaped from about seventy thousand to over half a 
million, and that of Tennessee from thirty thousand to 
over four hundred thousand. Ohio, Indiana and Illi- 
nois, which had no place in the census of 1790, were 
credited, respectively, with nearly six hundred thousand, 
one hundred and forty-seven thousand, and fifty-five 

15 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

thousand, in 1820. The movement went on without 
pause until the outbreak of the great rebellion. It was 
even more plainly marked with the home-seeking char- 
acter than the earlier settlement of the seaboard States. 
We need not in this instance seek the home-loving in- 
stinct under the religious motive. The circumstances 
and the methods of the new army of settlers revealed 
the supreme object of their emigration. 

The lands along the coast and in the rich valleys of 
tidal rivers had been well occupied by a people who en- 
joyed substantial prosperity, not only as the reward of 
their industry, but also as the result of their prioi'ity 
of settlement. The country had grown. It was plainly 
upon the verge of a larger and more rapid expansion. 
These circumstances enhanced the value of property 
and laid the foundation of many family fortunes, espe- 
cially where the colonial hamlets had grown to be towns, 
and promised to become populous cities. The early- 
comers and their descendants were being steadily en- 
riched by the unearned increment. Those who were 
thus established had no occasion to move, but their less 
fortunate neighbors longed for homes of their own, and 
were ready to take quick advantage of the opportunity 
which the war and the Ordinance of 1787 had opened 
for them in the West. These people were almost uni- 
versally poor in a worldly sense, but rich in courage and 
intelligence and full of the spirit of empire-builders. 
They were no more a class of greedy speculators than 
were the pioneers of New England. They emigrated 
in order that they might improve their condition. They 
were home-seekers pure and simple. Placed completely 
beyond the influence of Europe, and acting under a new 

16 



THE HOME-BUILDING INSTINCT 

spirit of nationality, the people concerned in onr second 
era of colonization developed a rugged Americanism be- 
fore unknown. This spirit was typified in the character 
of Abraham Lincoln, who was one of its products. 

The third era of colonization followed the War of the 
Kebellion, as the second had followed the "War of the Eevo- 
lution, and largely for the same reason. The cessation 
of hostilities and the disbandment of the armies turned 
back into the paths of peace hundreds of thousands of 
veterans. They were filled with an over-mastering desire 
for homes. They longed for a chance to work for them- 
selves, as their fathers and forefathers had done. Uncle 
Sam was still proprietor of a vast estate of virgin and 
fertile soil. The homestead law beckoned to the return- 
ing hosts like the finger of fate. The result was the 
phenomenal settlement of the Upper Mississippi Valley 
and the creation of States where the old soldier reigned 
all but supreme. In a period of twenty years after the 
war Nebraska jumped from a population of twenty-eight 
thousand to nearly half a million ; Kansas from one 
hundred thousand to a round million; Iowa from six 
hnndred thousand to a million and six hundred thousand ; 
Dakota from five thousand to one hundred and forty 
thousand, while Minnesota also added more than half a 
million to her total. 

The movement never paused until it encountered an 
obstacle beyond the power of the individual settler to 
overcome. This obstacle was aridity — the failure of 
rainfall to meet the demands of agriculture. The im- 
petus of the movement carried its vanguard across the 
danger-line and into tlie territory where existence could 
not be maintained without recourse to methods then lit- 
B 17 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

tie understood, and indeed not fully developed. Upon 
this strange boundary of prosperity, which nature had 
marked with indelible lines, the hosts engaged in the 
third colonization era trembled and hesitated for several 
years, then fell back baffled and disappointed. 

The first act in the drama of American settlement 
ended in the eastern foothills of the Alleghany moun- 
tains about 1770 ; the second, in the neighborhood of 
the Mississippi river about 1860 ; the third, midway 
on the plains of Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas 
about 1890. For each of these historic periods we 
might find a fit and speaking emblem in its character- 
istic means of transportation. The emblem of the first 
would be the little Mayflo2uer, tossing on the billows of 
the Atlantic ; that of the second, the heavily laden pack- 
horse, threading his tortuous way through the tangle of 
the untrodden forest; that of the third, the prairie 
schooner, steering for the setting sun across the trackless 
sea of the plains. 

The wonderful drama of American colonization has re- 
served a fourth and crowning act, for which the scenery 
is arranged and the actors ready. 



CHAPTER III 
THE BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

The ninety-seventh meridian divides the United States 
almost exactly into halves. East of that line dwell 
seventy-five million people. Here are overgrown cities 
and over-crowded industries. Here is surplus capital, as 
idle and burdensome as the surplus population. West of 
that line dwell five or six millions — less than the popula- 
tion of Pennsylvania, and scarcely more than that of 
Greater New York. And yet the vast territory to the 
West — so little known, so lightly esteemed, so sparsely 
peopled — is distinctly the better half of the United States. 
The West and East are different sections, not merely 
in name and geographical location, but in physical en- 
dowments and fundamental elements of economic life. 
Nature wrote upon them, in her own indelible charac- 
ters, the story of their wide contrasts and the prophecy 
of their varying civilizations. To the one were given the 
advantages of earlier development, but for the other were 
reserved the opportunities of a riper time. It was the 
destiny of the one to blossom and fruit in an epoch dis- 
tinguished for the accumulation of wealth, with its vast 
possibilities of evil and of good. It was the destiny of 
the otiier to lie fallow until humanity should feel a 
nobler impulse ; then to nurse, in the shadow of its ever- 

19 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

lasting mountains and the "warmth of its unfailing sun- 
shine, new dreams of liberty and equality for men. 

That this is not the popular conception of the mission 
of the Far West may be frankly acknowledged. The 
region is little known to the great middle -classes in 
American life. It has been demonstrated by actual stat- 
istics that only three per cent, of our people travel more 
than fifty miles from their homes in the course of a year. 
Those who make extended pleasure tours gravitate not 
unnaturally to Europe, drawn by the fascination of 
quaint foreign scenes and the fame of historic places. 
But the comparatively few whose business or fancy has 
taken them across the continent fail, as a rule, to grasp 
the true significance of the wide empire which stretches 
from the middle of the great plains to the shores of the 
Western sea. 

It is a common human instinct to regard unfamiliar 
conditions with distrust. The first settlers in Iowa en- 
gaged in desperate rivalry for possession of the wooded 
lands, thinking that no soil was fit for agricultural pur- 
poses unless it furnished the pioneer an opportunity to 
cut down trees and pull up stumps. ''Land that won't 
grow trees won't grow anything," was the maxim of the 
knowing ones. Their fathers had cleared the forests on 
the slopes of the Alleghanies to make way for the plough 
and the field, and the new generation could not conceive 
that land which bore rich crops of wild grasses and lay 
plastic and level for the husbandman to begin his labors, 
could have any value. A great deal of hard work was 
wasted before it was discovered that nature had provided 
new and superior conditions in the land beyond the 
Mississippi. 

20 



BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

So it generally happens that the casual Western trav- 
eller, looking at the conntry from car-windows in the in- 
tervals between his daily paper, brings back more con- 
tempt than admiration for the economic possibilities of 
the conntry. One must live in the Far West to begin 
to comprehend it. Not only so, but he must come with 
eager eyes from an older civilization, and he must study 
the beginnings of industrial and social institutions 
throughout the region as a whole, to have any adequate 
appreciation of the real potentialities of that half of the 
United States which has been reserved for the theatre of 
twentieth-century developments. To all other observers 
the new West is a sealed book. 

The West is divided from the East by a boundary-line 
which is not imaginary. It is a plain mark on the face 
of the earth, and no man made it. It is the ijlace where 
the region of assured rainfall ends and the arid region 
begins. There have formerly been some costly doubts 
about the precise location of this line, but these have 
been dispelled by experience, and the lesson learned in 
hardship and impressed by disaster is learned for all 
time. The momentous boundary - line is that of the 
ninety-seventh meridian, which cleaves in twain the 
Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. East 
of this line there is a rainfall which is accepted as re- 
liable, though there are alternate disasters of drought 
and flood, varying in their effects from short crops to 
total failures. 

Even in humid regions nothing is so uncertain as the 
time and amount of the rainfall. In the whole range of 
modern industry nothing is so crude, uncalculating, and 
unscientific as the cliildlike dependence on the mood of 

21 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

the clouds for the moisture essential to the production 
of the staple necessities of life. 

The distinguishing characteristic of the vast region 
west of the ninety-seventh meridian is, then, its aridity — 
the lack of rainfall sufficient to insure the success of 
agriculture. The new empire includes, in whole or in 
part, seventeen States and Territories. It is a region of 
magnificent dimensions. From north to south it meas- 
ures as far as from Montreal to Mobile. From east to 
west the distance is greater than from Boston to Omaha. 
Within these wide boundaries there are great diversities of 
climate and soil, of altitude and other physical conditions. 

The arid region was the latest acquisition of national 
territory, except Alaska, until the late war with Spain. 
It was unknown and undisputed as late as the Revolu- 
tion. It was the fruit of James Monroe's negotiations 
with Napoleon I., resulting in the Louisiana purchase ; of 
the forcible conquest from Mexico ; of the annexation of 
Texas, and of the Gadsden purchase in 1853. Unlike 
the rich and well-watered lands in the valley and around 
the mouth of the Mississippi, the acquisition of the arid 
region was not compelled by the irresistible pressure of 
the frontiersmen. It came as a perquisite with the pur- 
chase of Louisiana, and as a concession to manifest des- 
tiny. Between the day of its acquisition by the United 
States and the dawn of its peculiar and enduring civili- 
zation, the country was destined to pass through three 
distinct eras. The first was that of the hunter and 
trapper ; the second, that of tlie cowboy and the rude 
miner ; the third, that of the railroad, the land-boomer, 
and the speculative farmer, with mining reduced to a 
stable industry. 
^ 23 



BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

The first exploration of the strange new land of the 
mysterious West owed its initiative to the public spirit 
of President Jefferson. He had, indeed, but the vaguest 
conception of the possible utility of the country, and 
realized that its development would come long after he 
should have passed from the stage of events. But he 
was a patron of science, and felt, moreover, a patriotic 
curiosity to learn what sort of a property the nation had 
acquired. Congress cheerfully authorized the expedition 
which Jefferson proposed. The result was the journey 
of the famous explorers Lewis and Clark, begun in 
May, 1804. Starting from St. Louis, they ascended the 
Missouri river to its sources, crossed the Eocky Moun- 
tains in Montana, and followed the Columbia river to its 
outlet in the Pacific Ocean. When they returned and 
presented their report, the public obtained its first glim- 
mering of knowledge concerning the geology, climate, 
and animal and human life of the Far West. The subject 
was then one of remote interest to the nation, which had 
scarcely acquired its foothold, through actual settlement, 
on the northwestern Territories between the Alleghanies 
and the Mississippi. 

The second notable explorations were those of Zebulon 
Pike, which developed a superficial knowledge of Colo- 
rado and Mexico. Then came Bonneville, Fremont, and 
their contemporaries and successors, with adventurous 
settlers and hardy gold-hunters treading close upon their 
heels, and effecting little substantial development for 
decades. Francis Parkman, fresh from college, roamed 
through the country as far as the Black Hills and old Fort 
Laramie in 1847-8, and left a lively account of the savage 
wilderness in The Oregon Trail. 

23 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Thus gradaally, and attended by many misrepresenta- 
tions and strange misconceptions, which inevitably scat- 
tered wide the seeds of prejudice, the arid region emerged 
from absolute obscurity and stood partially revealed to 
men. It was not, however, until a few pioneer settle- 
ments had demonstrated undreamed-of results, nor until 
Major John W. Powell, by utterances as daring as his 
explorations, had furnished a scientific basis for a brood 
of new hopes, that the real character of Arid America 
began to glow, like the belated sun through a morning 
fog, upon the popular imagination. 

The superiority of the western half-continent over its 
eastern counterpart may not be expressed in a word. It 
is, rather, a matter for patient unfolding through a study 
of natural conditions over wide areas, and a scrutiny of 
the human institutions which are the inevitable product 
of this environment. Aridity, in the elementary sense, 
is purely an affair of climate. That it is also the germ of 
new industrial and social systems, with far-reaching 
possibilities in the fields of ethics and politics, will be 
demonstrated further on in these pages. But the first 
item of importance in the assets of the new West is 
climate. 

When an inhabitant of the Atlantic seaboard, or of 
the shores of the Great Lakes, or of the lowlands of the 
South, can no longer withstand the penetration of cold, 
damp winds, or the malarious breath of swamps, his 
family physician sends him to the arid West. Through- 
out its length and breadth it is one vast sanitarium. 
Its pure, sweet air and sunny skies are instinct with the 
breath of life. They put new heart into the drooping 
invalid, prolonging his life, and, if he be not too far 

24 




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BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

gone at the outset, restoring the old vigor to the shat- 
tered body. The faces of the permanent sojourners 
within their influence they paint with the brown badge 
of health. It is too early as yet to observe the full effect 
of the climate on the population of the arid West, but 
sufficient results are apparent to warrant the assertion 
that these influences will breed a great race. 

The element of aridity not only fosters health, but 
moderates and makes more readily bearable the sum- 
mer's heat and winter's cold. It is the damp cold that 
penetrates to the marrow. It is the humid heat that 
prostrates. To say that a cold of thirty degrees below 
zero at Helena, in Montana, is felt less than ten degrees 
above zero in Chicago or New York ; or to say that 
eighty-five degrees above zero in the East is more dan- 
gerous to the laborer than one hundred and fifteen de- 
grees at Indio, in the Colorado desert, is to put a severe 
tax on popular credulity. Nevertheless, both state- 
ments are literally true, as all who have experienced the 
conditions testify. 

Science corroborates the story. The United States 
"Weather Bureau has perfected in recent years an in- 
strument to measure the difference between apparent 
and sensible temperature, which is determined by hu- 
midity, or lack of it. The instrument, which consists 
of a dry and of a wet thermometer, has been in opera- 
tion at Yuma, in southwestern Arizona, since 1888. Mr. 
A. Ashenberger, the official observer, reports that the 
hottest day in that period was July 20, 1892. On that day 
the dry thermometer registered one hundred and four- 
teen degrees of apparent heat, and the wet thermometer 
sixty-nine degrees of sensible heat — a difference of forty- 

25 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

three degrees. The scientific findings are borne out by 
the every -day testimony of individuals. Sun-strokes in 
the arid region are practically unknown. The rainless air 
that sweeps over the arid lands of western America is 
necessarily dry. It neither breeds diseases nor carries 
their germs. It is the very breath of health. The lack 
of moisture, combined with the configuration, forbids 
the presence of tornadoes, and the Weather Bureau has 
absolutely no record of such a calamity west of the 
ninety-seventh meridian. 

The superior climate of the arid "West is due to funda- 
mental conditions which differ widely from those of east- 
ern America. Viewed from the stand-point of the broader 
climatic effects, the eastern half of the United States is 
one wide plain. The moisture-laden winds from lakes 
and gulf, as from the great ocean itself, meet none but 
insignificant barriers. But in the Far West the moun- 
tains are the supreme factor in the making of the cli- 
mate. The coast range stands eternal guard along the 
margin of the sea, while a little farther inland the Sierra 
Nevada lifts its giant peaks to intercept the clouds which 
escape the outer barrier and to condense their moisture 
into snow. Down the centre of the continent, from 
Canada to Mexico, the Eocky Mountains tower far into 
the sky, repeating upon the eastern edge of the arid 
region the process of condensing and storing the winter's 
rain and holding it against the summer's need. Between 
the three great primary ranges scores of shorter ones, or 
isolated mountain groups, reach their long arms into the 
desert. The dryness, purity, and lightness of the at- 
mosphere are due to this mountain topography, and to 
the high average altitude throughout the region. It is, 

26 



BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

theu, in the striking character of its climate, springing 
from these fixed and fundamental conditions, that the 
great West scores its first superiority over the well-settled 
states east of the Mississippi river. 

But the nation's sanitarium is also the nation's treas- 
ure-house. Without the store of precious metals which 
sleeps in the bosom of the western mountains the Ameri- 
can people would be practically dependent on foreign 
lands for their supply of gold and silver. From this 
pitiable plight the nation was saved by the wise states- 
manship and the great good fortune which brought into 
the Union the States of Colorado, Utah, and California, 
of Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, of Washington, Oregon, 
and Wyoming, and the Territories of New Mexico and 
Arizona. European nations testify their appreciation 
of such resources by struggling for the possession of 
South Africa, a mineral field scarcely worthy to be 
mentioned in comparison with that of our own great 
West. 

The western half-continent is rich not merely in the 
precious metals, but in all the raw materials of economic 
greatness. Its supreme advantage consists in the ex- 
traordinary diversity of its resources. In sketching the 
peculiarities of the several Western States, further on in 
these pages, the facts will be stated with more detail. In 
directing attention to the general superiority of these 
States over their sisters of the East, it is sufiicient now to 
say that they have more water-power than New England ; 
more coal, iron, and oil than Pennsylvania ; larger and 
better forests than Maine and Michigan ; and produce 
better wheat and corn than Illinois and Indiana. The 
time is rapidly coming when they will produce more and 

27 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

better sugar than Louisiana, and will revolutionize the 
tanning industry by supplanting oak and hemlock bark 
with canaigre. With beef and mutton, wool. and hides, 
they already feed and clothe the East. They have finer 
harbors than Boston and New York, and a sea-coast 
which faces a greater foreign world. 

There is no Eastern State that compares with almost 
any one of these giant commonwealths of the compara- 
tively unknown West in anything save present develop- 
ment, which includes, of course, population, wealth, and 
political influence. So emphatic and unmistakable is the 
superiority with which nature endowed the Far West 
that it may be said in all seriousness that if the Pilgrim 
Fathers had landed at San Diego rather than at Ply. 
mouth, that half of the country which now contains over 
ninety per cent, of the total population would be regarded 
as comparatively worthless. It would have been difficult 
to settle it to the best advantage. To illustrate : imagine 
the excitement which would occur if the people of New 
England should awaken some morning to find themselves 
in possession of the climate and diversified resources of 
Colorado, Washington, or California ! Even the sane 
brain which rules the land of steady habits would grow 
dizzy in the presence of such vast possibilities. And yet 
Colorado, Washington, and California represent but a 
small i")roportion of the country which rests under the 
wide arch of our western sky. 

In briefly reviewing the salient points of difference be- 
tween the old section and the new, the feature which 
constitutes at once the most characteristic and the most 
fundamental advantage of the West has been left for 
separate treatment. Not until this feature has been con- 

28 



) 



BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 

sidered is it possible to appreciate the striking character 
of the new civilization which will rule the destinies of 
the western half of the continent, and, very probably, 
project new and potent influences into the social and 
political life of the United States as a whole. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

FoRTUKATE bejond all other parts of the United States 
in its climate and in the surpassing wealth of its forests, 
its quarries and its mines, western America is yet more 
favored in another element of its physical foundation. 
This is the substantial aridity which prevails throughout 
its vast proportions. 

The anomaly that its foremost blessing should consist 
in the fact which gave it a wide-spread reputation for 
worthlessness is interesting, but unimportant. Nature 
frequently conceals her raw materials of greatness, alike 
in men and in countries, until time and opportunity are 
ripe. In the aridity of the West we shall find the true 
key to its future institutions. Climate may produce a 
healthy race, and mineral resources may enrich it, but 
the natural conditions which determine the character of 
social and industrial organization, and mould the habits 
and customs of men, are the potent influences which 
shape civilization. Hence we shall see that in any just 
estimate of the relative worth of western resources the 
fact of aridity must be rated as high above the value 
of forests and mines as human progress is dearer than 
money, and as the fate of the race is more momentous 
than the prosperity of individuals. 

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THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

The inflnence of the new environment may readily be 
illustrated by comparing the conditions which confronted 
the early settlers of the New England forests and the Illi- 
nois prairie, on one hand, and, upon the other, those 
which the settler met in the deserts around Salt Lake. 
Except for the temporary need of defence against the 
Indians, eastern settlers were able to locate their homes 
without reference to neighbors. They cleared the forest 
or turned the prairie sod, and were ready to begin. 
They generally took all the land they could claim under 
the law, and held much of it out of use for speculation. 
The greed for land resulted in large farms, and this in- 
volved social isolation. The individual acted alone and 
exclusively for his own benefit. The conditions not only 
favored, but practically compelled it. Out of this primal 
germ of our eastern citizenship grew the plant of indi- 
vidual enterprise, which is the conspicuous product of 
the time. The fruit which it bore was competition, and 
this has latterly tended towards monopoly. 

The conditions which confronted the settler in the 
deserts of Utah were widely different. There he could 
not build his home and make his living regardless of his 
neighbor. Without water to irrigate the rich but arid 
soil he could not raise a spear of grass nor an ear of 
corn. "Water for irrigation could only be obtained by 
turning the course of a stream and building canals which 
must sometimes be cut into the solid walls of the cauyon 
or conducted across chasms in flumes. All this lay be- 
yond the reach of the individual. Thus it was found 
that the association and organization of men were the 
price of life and prosperity in the arid "West. The alter- 
native was starvation. The plant which grew from this 

31 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

new seed was associative enterprise, and we shall pres- 
ently see what flower it bore in Utah and other States of 
the arid region. But it is interesting to first observe 
that we have encountered in these underlying conditions 
of the western half-continent principles that are as old 
as history and as wide as humanity. 

The founders of the wonderful civilization of the 
Netherlands were compelled to deal with conditions 
which brought into action the same forces as those 
which are working out interesting results in the arid 
region of the United States. The Dutch combined and 
organized their efforts in order to keep the Avater off 
their lands, as the Westerners combine and organize to 
bring the water on. Writing of this aspect of his sub- 
ject in that enlightening book, The Piiritan in Holland, 
E7igland, and America, Mr. Douglass Campbell says : 

" The constant struggle for existence, as in all cases 
when the rewards are great enough to raise men above 
biting, sordid penury, strengthens the whole race, men- 
tally, morally, and physically. Labor liere has never teen 
selfish and individual. To he effective, it requires organ- 
ization and direction. Men learn to work in a body and 
under leaders. A single man laboring on a dike would 
accomplish nothing ; the whole population must turn 
out and act together." 

Even more interesting and significant is Mr. Campbell's 
statement of the far-reaching influence, upon the whole 
economic fabric of the nation, of the co-operative meth- 
ods taught the founders of Holland by the necessities of 
their situation and transmitted to their descendants. He 
says : 

"The habits thus engendered extend in all directions. 

32 



THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

Everything is done in corporations" [co-operations ?]. 
"Each trade has its guild, elects its own officers, and 
manages its own allairs. The people are a vast civic 
army, subdivided into brigades, regiments, and com- 
panies, all accustomed to discipline, learning the first 
great lesson of life — obedience." 

Professor E. W. Hilgard, the distinguished director of 
the agricultural department of the University of Cali- 
fornia, has brought this line of reasoning from physical 
causes to industrial effects into direct ajDplication to our 
subject. In a notable contribution to the Popular 
Science Monthly he says : 

"As irrigation means heavy investments of capital or 
labor, hence the co-operation of many and the construc- 
tion of permanent works : it necessarily implies the cor- 
relative existence of a stable social organization, with 
protection for property rights, and (in view of tlie 
complexity of the problem of proper and eqnitable dis- 
tribution of water) a rather advanced aj^preciation of 
the need and advantages of co-operative organization." 

It was in the course of an effort to account for the 
singular preference of the founders of the most ancient 
civilizations for arid lands, rather than for the forested 
areas which have been the scenes of later development, 
that Professor Hilgard made this expression of the 
obvious effects of irrigation on industrial polity. A 
little further on we shall see other interesting results of 
his inquiry in this field. 

The quality of aridity is thus the most significant 
among many striking contrasts which mark the western 
half of the United States — the field for future settle- 
ment and development — as fundamentally different 
c 33 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

from the eastern half. Its relation to agricnltnre is im- 
portant and interesting, but its relation to a future civil- 
ization in a broader sense will be momentous. It is, 
indeed, a fateful crop, trembling with the hopes of hu- 
manity, that is beginning to sprout from the arid soil of 
the far- western deserts. 

The blessing of aridity is again conspicuously illus- 
trated in its remarkable effect upon the soil. The land 
which the casual traveller, speaking out of the splendid 
depths of his ignorance and prejudice, condemns as 
"worthless" and fit only "to hold the earth together," 
is in reality rich and durable beyond the most favored 
districts in the humid regions. It is the marvel of every 
eastern farmer who comes in contact with it. Professor 
Hilgard sees in this phenomenal fertility the most rea- 
sonable explanation of the choice of arid lands by the 
people foremost in ancient civilization. 

It has puzzled the historian to account for the fact 
that the glories of antiquity sprang from the heart of 
the desert. The fact itself is, of course, beyond dispute. 
Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, with Palestine, "the land 
of milk and honey" ; Persia, Arabia, and the classic lands 
of northern India, as well as the countries of the Car- 
thaginians and the Moors, were arid regions. So also 
were the chosen homes of the Incas in South America, 
and of the Aztecs and Toltecs in Mexico and our own 
Southwest, the fame of whose vanished civilizations is 
reflected in the pages of Prescott and Baldwin. For 
aught we know to the contrary, these departed nations 
may have been perfect types of the co-operative com- 
monwealth, and the knack of governing them for the 
equal benefit of all may be the most precious of the lost 

34 



THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

arts. Among the silent witnesses which have survived 
the centuries to testify to the engineering skill and 
the perfection of social organization of those who were 
swept into oblivion by nameless calamities, are great 
irrigation canals, portions of which are even yet so true 
and substantial as to serve the uses of to-day in con- 
junction with modern works. There are such instances 
in Arizona. 

The accepted explanation of the choice of the arid 
land by the ancient races is that they sought security 
against savage enemies, both animal and human, which 
infested the forest. The theory is purely sentimental 
and quite inconsistent with the slight but conclusive 
evidences of their superior intelligence and courage 
which yet survive. The reasonable explanation of the 
mystery of ancient civilization is that the arid lands 
were chosen because they were infinitely better than the 
humid lands, and because they presented conditions 
much better suited to the industrial polity of the people 
and the age. 

In searching for the clue of this mystery Professor 
Hilgard has developed facts which tend to upset other 
accepted theories. It has long been conceded that cer- 
tain arid districts are the richest spots on the surface of 
the globe. *'The valley of the Nile," for instance, is a 
phrase which is everywhere taken as a synonym of ex- 
traordinary fertility. The richness and durability of 
the Nile lands, which have supported for centuries an 
average population of little more than one and one-half 
persons to each acre of cultivated soil (a density of set- 
tlement which would give Texas a population of over 
one hundred and sixty millions), has been ascribed to 

35 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

the fertilizing quality of the annual deposit of river sedi- 
ment. The partisans of irrigation have made much of 
this aspect of the matter, asserting that the artificial 
application of water is itself a means of fertilization. 
They have asserted the claim not only where the source 
of supply, as in the cases of the Rio Grande and the Rio 
Colorado, is obviously heavily charged with silt held 
in suspension, but with almost equal ardor in cases 
where the water flows, a stream of limpid crystal, di- 
rectly from the mountain-side, or gushes impetuously 
from the earth in artesian outpourings. 

That the famous river Nile does, indeed, leave a thin 
deposit of rich soil upon each subsidence of its annual 
flood our California scientist does not, of course, deny. 
He proves, however, that this layer of new soil is only of 
the thickness of common cardboard — one-twenty-fifth of 
an inch — and is equal to only about two good two-horse 
loads per acre. Three times as much stable manure is 
the usual dressing for an acre. He truly observes that 
as the sediment is merely rich soil, thousands of farmers 
could readily haul and spread such fertilizer upon their 
land, and would doubtless do so if they could thereby 
duplicate the phenomenal fertility of the Nile country. 
He clinches his argument by showing that the neighbor- 
ing province of Fayoom, in the Libyan Desert, shares 
the perpetual fertility of the Nile district, though irri- 
gated only with the clear waters of Lake Moeris ; that 
the regur lands of the Deccan, in south-central In- 
dia, have been phenomenally productive for thousands 
of years, and that the loess region of China, drained 
by the headwaters of the Yellow river, have been the 
granary of China for ages. Like the famous Egyptian 

36 



THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

provinces, the lands referred to in India and China are 
arid or semi-arid, and, unlike the Nile Valley, they have 
not been enriched by sedimentry deposits or fertilized 
by irrigation. 

Hence, Professor Hilgard reaches the somewhat sensa- 
tional conclusion that the extraordinary fertility which, 
by world-wide acknowledgment, marks the valley of the 
Nile, is a qualiti/ inherent in aridity itself. And he main- 
tains his contention thus : 

" Soils are formed from rocks by the physical and 
chemical agencies commonly comprehended in the term 
weathering, which includes both their pulverization and 
chemical decomposition by atmospheric action. Both 
actions, but more especially the chemical one, continue 
in the soil itself; the last named in an accelerated meas- 
ure, so as to give rise to the farmer's practice of ' fallow- 
ing' — that is, leaving the land exposed to the action of 
the air in a well-tilled but unplanted condition, with a 
view to increasing the succeeding year's crop by the ad- 
ditional amount of plant-food rendered available, during 
the fallow, from the soil itself. 

" This weathering process is accompanied by the 
formation of new compounds out of the minerals origin- 
ally composing the rock. Some of these, such as zeolites 
and clay, are insoluble in water, and therefore remain in 
the soil, forming a reserve of plant-food that may be 
drawn upon gradually by plants ; while another portion, 
containing especially the compounds of the alkalies — pot- 
ash and soda — are easily soluble in water. Where the 
rainfall is abundant these soluble substances are current- 
ly carried into the country drainage, and through the 
rivers into the ocean. Among these are potash, lime, 

37 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

magnesia, sulphuric aud a trifle of phosphoric acids. 
Where, on the contrary, the rainfall is insufficient to 
carry the soluble compounds formed in the weathering 
of the soil-mass into the country drainage, those com- 
pounds must of necessity remain and accumulate in the 
soil." 

All this is perfectly comprehensible, even to the lay 
mind. The valuable ingredients of the soil which are 
soluble have been washed out of the land in humid re- 
gions, like our eastern States, by the rains of centuries. 
On the other hand, these elements have been accumu- 
lating in the arid soil of the West during the same cen- 
turies. They lie there now like an inexhaustible bank 
account on which the plant-life of the future may draw 
at will without danger of protest. The process which 
created this rich soil goes on repeating itself — recreating 
the soil season after season. The same is true, of course, 
in the arid and semi-arid regions of Egypt, India, China, 
and all other localities that enjoy the inestimable bless- 
ing of aridity. 

Professor Hilgard's conclusions are the .result of pa- 
tient investigation. They are based on more than one 
thousand analyses of the soils of the arid and the hu- 
mid regions of the United "States — of the West and the 
East. These analyses demonstrated the following as- 
tounding fact : That the soils of the arid regions lying 
west of the one hundredth meridian, when compared 
with the soils of the humid region lying east of the 
Mississippi river, contain on the average three times as 
much potash, six times as much magnesia, and fourteen 
times as much lime. This is the scientific explanation 
of the superior productiveness of the arid regions of the 

38 



THE BLESSING OF ARIDITY 

West, which every intelligent observer has noted and 
marvelled to behold. 

The people of the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky 
and of other favored localities have rejieated from gen- 
eration to generation the boast that *' a limestone coun- 
try is always a rich country." Professor Hilgard has 
demonstrated that the average arid soil is equal to the 
most phenomenal soil of the East, while the soil of the 
arid West as a whole is beyond comparison with that 
of the humid East as a whole. He coins the maxim, 
"Arid countries are always rich countries when irri- 
gated," and the phrase does scant justice to the subject. 
It only remains to add that Professor Hilgard is recog- 
nized as the foremost expert on soils in the West, and 
one of the first men in his profession in the United 
States. No one will question the weight of his views, 
for they coincide alike with common-sense and with 
world-wide experience through the centuries. It cannot, 
therefore, be doubted that the agricultural foundation 
of the Far West, as it relates to the soil, is incompar- 
ably better than any other part of the continent. 

While science has thus furnished a lucid explanation 
of the universal fertility of arid lands, it would be un- 
fair to draw the conclusion that the claims which have 
been made concerning the rare fertilizing qualities of 
certain western rivers are entirely unfounded. Nearly 
all of the rivers in the West carry more or less rich silt, 
due to the fact that they flow through treeless regions, 
where the soil is swept into the stream by winds and 
sudden torrents. Eastern rivers are, as a rule, much 
clearer, because they flow through forests and cultivated 
fields. The waters of the Colorado river gather an 

39 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

enormous quantity of fertilizing matter in their long 
journey from the mountains of Wyoming to the Gulf of 
California. There is no guesswork in this instance. 
The scientific men of the University of Arizona, at Tuc- 
son, have made patient experiments, extending over 
many months of time, to determine the actual commer- 
cial value of the fertilizer contained in these waters and 
precipitated on the land in the process of irrigation. 
Basing their computation upon the use of thirty-six 
acre-inches of this water, they find that the fertilizing 
material so applied would cost, if purchased in the mar- 
ket, the sum of nine dollars and seven cents per acre. 
Where such conditions prevail cultivation can never im- 
poverish, but actually enriches, the fortunate soil. But 
we have yet to mention the chief blessing of aridity. 
This is the fact that it compels the use of irrigation. 
And irrigation is a miracle ! 



CHAPTER V 
THE MIRACLE OF IRRIGATION 

The beauty of Damascns is the theme of poets. Speak- 
ing of this ancient capital an aiionymons writer remarks 
that *'the cause of its importance as a city in all the ages 
is easily seen as you approach it from the south. Miles 
before you see the mosques of the modern city the foun- 
tains of a copious and perennial stream spring from among 
the rocks and brushwood at the base of the Anti-Leba- 
non, creating a wide area about them, rich with prolific 
vegetation." He continues : 

*' These are the ' streams of Lebanon,' which are poeti- 
cally spoken of in the Songs of Solomon, and the ^rivers 
of Damascus,' which Naaman, not unnaturally, preferred 
to all the 'waters of Israel.' This stream, with its many 
branches, is the inestimable treasure of Damascus. While 
the desert is a fortification round Damascus, the river, 
where the habitations of men must always have been 
gathered, as along the Nile, is its life. 

**The city, which is situated in a wilderness of gardens 
of flowers and fruits, has rushing through its streets the 
limpid and refreshing current ; nearly every dwelling has 
its fountain, and at night the lights are seen flashing on 
the waters that dash along from their mountain home. 
As you first view the city from one of the overhanging 

41 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ridges yon are prepared to excuse the Mohammedans for 
calling it the earthly paradise. Around the marble 
minarets, the glittering domes, and. the white buildings, 
shining with ivory softness, a maze of bloom and fruit- 
age — where olive and pomegranate, orange and apricot, 
plum and walnut, mingle their varied tints of green — is 
presented to the sight, in striking contrast to the miles 
of barren desert over which you have just ridden." 

This is the miracle of irrigation in the Syrian desert. 
It is no more miraculous in that far-eastern country than 
in our OAvn West. Nor is Damascus more beautiful than 
Denver, Salt Lake City, or than any one of a score of 
modern towns in California. But because Damascus is 
ancient and historic, and looks down on mankind from 
the biblical past, it possesses a degree of interest with 
which it is difficult to invest much better and more im- 
portant places of our own country and our own time. It 
is well, then, to remember that not only the beauty of 
Damascus, but the glories of the Garden of Eden itself, 
were products of irrigation. " A river went out of Eden 
to water the Garden," says the Bible story. 

No consideration of the subject can be appreciative 
when it starts with the narrow view that irrigation is 
merely an adjunct to agriculture. It is a social and in- 
dustrial factor, in a much broader sense. It r*" only 
makes it possible for a civilization to rise and flourish in 
the midst of desolate wastes ; it shapes and colors that 
civilization after its own peculiar design. It is not 
merely the life-blood of the field, but the source of in- 
stitutions. These wider and more subtle influences are 
difficult to define in abstract terms, but we may trace 
them clearly through the history of various commu- 

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THE MIRACLE OF IRRIGATION 

nities which have grown up in conformity with these 
conditions. 

The essence of the industrial life which springs from 
irrigation is its democracy. Tlie first great law which 
irrigation lays down is this : There shall be no monopoly 
of land. This edict it enforces by the remorseless opera- 
tion of its own economy. Canals must be built before 
water can be conducted upon the land. This entails ex- 
pense, either of money or of labor. What is expensive 
cannot be had for naught. Where water is the founda- 
tion of prosperity it becomes a precious thing, to be 
neither cheaply acquired not wantonly wasted. Like a 
city's provisions in a siege, it is a thing to be carefully 
husbanded, to be fairly distributed according to men's 
needs, to be wisely expended by those who receive it. 
For these reasons men cannot acquire as much irrigated 
land, even from the public domain, as they could acquire 
where irrigation was unnecessary. It is not only more 
difficult to acquire in large bodies, but yet more difficult 
to retain. A large farm under irrigation is a misfortune; 
a great farm, a calamity. Only the small farm pays. 
But this small farm blesses its proprietor with industrial 
independence and crowns him with social equality. That 
is democracy. 

Industrial independence is, in simplest terms, the guar- 
antee of subsistence from one's own labors. It is the 
ability to earn a living under conditions which admit of 
the smallest possible element of doubt with the least 
possible dependence upon others. Irrigation fully satis- 
fies this definition. 

The canal is an insurance policy against loss of crops 
by drought, while aridity is a substantial guarantee 

43 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

against injury by flood. Of all the advantages of irriga- 
tion, this is the most obvious. Scarcely less so, how- 
ever, is its compelling power in the matter of produc- 
tion. Probably there is no spot of land in the United 
States where the average crop raised by dependence upon 
rainfall might not be doubled by intelligent irrigation. 
The rich soils of the arid region produce from four to 
ten times as largely with irrigation as the soil of the 
humid region without it. As the measure of value is 
not area, but productive capacity, twenty acres in the Far 
West should equal one hundred acres elsewhere. Such 
is the actual fact. 

A little further on we shall see that not merely the 
quantity of crops, but their quality as well, resiionds to 
the influence of irrigation. "We shall see how this art 
favors the production of the wide diversity of products 
required for a generous living. Certainty, abundance, 
variety — all this upon an area so small as to be within 
the control of a single family through its own labor — 
are the elements which compose industrial independence 
under irrigation. The conditions which prevail where 
irrigation is not necessary — large farms, hired labor, a 
strong tendency to the single crop — are here reversed. 
Intensive cultivation and diversified production are in- 
sej^arably related to irrigation. These constitute a sys- 
tem of industry the fruit of which is a class of small 
landed proprietors resting upon a foundation of eco- 
nomic independence. 

This is the miracle of irrigation on its industrial side. 

As a factor in the social life of the civilization it cre- 
ates, irrigation is no less influential and beneficent. 
Compared with the familiar conditions of country life 

44 



THE MIRACLE OF IRRIGATION 

which we heave known in the East and central West, the 
cliange which irrigation brings amounts to a revolution. 
The bane of rural life is its loneliness. Even food, 
sheltei*, and provision for old age do not furnish protec- 
tion against social discontent where the conditions deny 
the advantages which flow from human association. 
Better a servant in the town than a proprietor in the 
country ! — such has been the verdict of recent genera- 
tions who have grown up on the farm and left it to seeli 
satisfaction for their social instincts in the life of the 
town. The starvation of the soul is almost as real as 
the starvation of the body. 

Irrigation compels the adoption of the small-farm 
unit. This is the germ of new social possibilities, and 
we shall see to what extent they have already been real- 
ized as we proceed. During the first and second eras of 
colonization in this country the favorite size for a farm 
was about four hundred acres, of which from a fourth 
to a half was gradually cleared and the rest retained in 
woodland. The Mississipi)i Valley was settled mostly in 
quarter-sections, containing one hundred and sixty acres 
each. Tlie productive capacity of land is so largely in- 
creased by irrigation, and the amount which one family 
can cultivate by its own labor consequently so much re- 
duced, that the small-farm unit is a practical necessity 
in the arid region. 

Where settlement has been carried out upon the 
most enlightened lines irrigated farms range from five 
to twenty acres upon the average, rarely exceeding forty 
acres at the maximum. It is perfectly obvious, of 
course, that a twenty-acre unit means that neighbors 
will be eight times as numerous as in a country settled 

45 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

up in quarter-sections — that where farms are ten acres 
in size neighbors will be multiplied by sixteen. Thus 
. in its most elementary aspect the society of the arid re- 
gion differs materially from that of a country of large 
farms. Eight or sixteen families upon a quarter-section 
are much better than no neighbors at all, but irrigation 
goes further than this in revolutionizing the social side 
of rural life. 

A very-small -farm unit makes it possible for those who 
till the soil to live in the town. The farm village, or 
home centre, is a well-established feature of life in Arid 
America, and a feature which is destined to enjoy wide 
and rapid extension. Each four or five thousand acres 
of cultivated land will sustain a thrifty and beautiful 
hamlet, where all the people may live close together 
and enjoy most of the social and educational advantages 
within the reach of the best eastern town. Their chil- 
dren will have kindergartens as well as schools, and pub- 
lic libraries and reading-rooms as well as churches. The 
farm village, lighted by electricity, furnished with domes- 
tic water through pipes, served with free postal delivery, 
and supplied with its own daily newspapers at morning 
and evening, has already been realized in Arid America. 
The great cities of the western valleys will not be cities 
in the old sense, but a long series of beautiful villages, 
connected by lines of electric motors, which will move 
their products and people from place to place. In this 
scene of intensely cultivated land, rich with its bloom 
and fruitage, with its spires and roofs, and with its car- 
pets of green and gold stretching away to the mountains, 
it will be difficult for the beholder to say where the town 
ends and the country begins. 




z 

o 

H 

o 
z 

s 



H o 

z _a 

O O 

z >^ 

< S 

^ 3 

— O 

- 'J 



X 
H 
Z 

o 



3 
O 



THE MIRACLE OF IRRIGATION 

This is the miracle of irrigation upon its social side. 

Irrigation is the foundation of truly scientific agricult- 
ure. Tilling the soil by dependence upon rainfall is, by 
comparison, like a stage-coach to the railroad, like the 
tallow dip to the electric light. The perfect conditions 
for scientific agriculture would be presented by a place 
where it never rained, but where a system of irrigation 
furnished a never-failing water supply which could be 
adjusted to the varying needs of different plants. It is 
difiicult for those who have been in the habit of thinking 
of irrigation as merely a substitute for rain to grasp the 
truth that precisely the contrary is the case. Rain is the 
poor dependence of those who cannot obtain the advan- 
tages of irrigation. The western farmer who has learned 
to irrigate thinks it would be quite as illogical for him 
to leave the watering of his potato-patch to the caprice 
of the clouds as for the housewife to defer her wash-day 
until she could catch rain-water in her tubs. 

The supreme advantage of irrigation consists not more 
in the fact that it assures moisture regardless of the 
weather than in the fact that it makes it possible to ap- 
ply that moisture just when and just where it is needed. 
For instance, on some cloudless day the strawberry-patch 
looks thirsty and cries for water through the unmistak- 
able language of its leaves. In the Atlantic States it 
probably would not rain that day, such is the perversity 
of nature, but if it did it would rain alike on the just 
and unjust — on the strawberries, which would be bene- 
fited by it, and on the sugar-beets, which crave only the 
uninterrupted sunshine that they may pack their tiny 
cells with saccharine matter. In the arid region there is 
practically no rain during the growing season. Thus the 

47 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

scientific farmer sends the water from his canal through 
the little furrows which divide the lines of strawberry 
plants, but permits the water to go singing past his field 
of beets. 

Plants and trees require moisture as well as sunshine 
and soil, and for three reasons : first, that the tiny roots 
may extract the chemical qualities from the soil; then, 
that there may be sap and juice; finally, that there may 
be moisture to evaporate or transpire from the leaves. 
But while all plant-life requires moisture, all kinds of it 
do not require the same amount, nor do they desire to 
receive it at the same time and in the same manner. 
Just as the skilful teacher studies the individualities of 
fifty different boys, endeavoring to discover how he may 
most wisely vai'y his methods to obtain the best results 
from each, so the scientific farmer studies his fifty differ- 
ent plants or trees and adjusts his artificial "rainfall" 
in the way which will produce the highest outcome. 
With the aid of colleges, experimental farms, and county 
institutes, wonderful progress has been made along these 
lines in recent years. This progress will continue until 
the agriculture and horticulture practised on the little 
farms of Arid America shall match the marvellous re- 
sults won by research and inventive genius in every other 
field of human endeavor. 

This is the miracle of irrigation upon its scientific 
side.* 

* For full explanation of practical raetbods of inigatiou, see 
Appendix. 



Ipart Second 
REAL UTOPIAS OF THE ARID WEST 

"At every new stage of the history of the American settlement, 
we are afresh reminded tliat colonies are planted by the uneasy. 
The discontent that comes from poverty and financial reverse, that 
which is born of political unrest, and that which has no other cause 
than feverish thirst for novelty and hazardous adventure, had each 
a share in impelling Englishmen to emigrate. But in the seven- 
teenth century religion was the dominant concern — one might al- 
most say the dominant passion — of the English race, and it supplied 
much the most efficient motive to colonization. Not only did it 
propel men to America, but it acted as a distributing force on this 
side of the sea, producing secondary colonies by expelling from a 
new plantation the discontented and the persecuted to make fresh 
breaks in the wilderness for new settlements." — Edward Eggle- 
STON, Beginnen of a Nation. 



CHAPTER I 

THE MORMON" COMMONWEALTH 

To stndy the hnman side of things in the arid region 
of the Far West, we must begin with the Mormon Com- 
monwealth of Utah. This is true for a number of excel- 
lent reasons. "We find here the earliest development of 
any consequence. Although irrigation is older than his- 
tory, it was never practised upon any considerable scale 
by Anglo-Saxons until the Mormon pioneers turned the 
waters of City Creek upon the alkaline soil of Salt Lake 
Valley in the summer of 1847. 

In Utah, almost alone of the far-western States, settle- 
ment began with home-making pure and simple. Irriga- 
tion was the primal and single industry until a common- 
wealth had been established. In California, in Colorado, 
in Nevada, in Idaho, and in Montana, mining, rather 
than agriculture, was the motive which induced the or- 
iginal settlement by Americans, and irrigation grew up 
only as an adjunct to the mining camp. In Wyoming, 
and in a less degree elsewhere, stock-raising was the first 
pursuit and irrigation was used merely to flood the bot- 
tom land and grow crops of coarse, wild hay for the win- 
ter feeding of cattle. In Washington and Oregon the 
first settlements were made along the humid coast re- 
gion, and the arid parts of those States were settled, iu 

51 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

such measure as they have been settled at all, by the 
overflow of tliose original currents of population. But 
in Utah the motive was home-building, and the pursuit 
was agriculture for its own sake. 

Furthermore, we find in Utah, and nowhere else, an 
entire and distinct peoj^le, who have grown up under one 
strong and simple industrial system, and have brought 
that system to its logical results. This experience covers 
half a century, and cannot be objected to on the ground 
that it is an experiment, tiie results of which remain to 
be demonstrated. 

Finally, partly because of these several reasons and 
partly because the Mormon fugitives possessed no capital 
except their leader's brains and their own hard hands, 
the economic institutions of Utah are the natural out- 
growth of the conditions of an arid land. Utah is the 
product of its environment. As we study it we shall 
see the economic tendencies underlying and shaping the 
industrial life of all communities which find their life- 
current in the irrigation canal and are surrounded by 
the rich and varied, but Avholly undeveloped, resources 
of our far-western country. It is for these reasons that 
the Mormon Commonwealth suggests itself irresistibly 
as the starting-point of any proper study of our subject. 

What did the pioneers have to start with ? What have 
they accomplished in fifty years ? How did they do it ? 
In the answers to these questions we may find a flood of 
light for the future of the West, but only uj^on condition 
that the answers be sought in a spirit of perfect candor 
and without prejudice either in favor of or against the 
interesting people of the Utah mountains. 

On July 24, 1847, the Mormon caravan emerged from 

52 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

the mouth of Emigration Canyon into the valley of the 
Great Salt Lake. It was a beautiful picture that greeted 
the eyes of the fugitives as they rested here to enjoy the 
shade of the cottonwoods and listen to the music of the 
mountain torrent and the birds. Out of the chill air of 
the higher altitudes, out of the dark shadows of the 
picturesque chasm, they had come by a sudden turn 
face to face with a broad, sunlit valley, which sloped 
gently away to the shore of an inland sea. On the east, 
the Wasatch mountains reared their brown and rifted bar- 
riers until their summits were lost in a crown of eternal 
snows. To the south and west the Oquirrhs marshalled 
their peaks into the waters of the lake. Below them, 
valley and lake ; around them on every side, mountains 
and more mountains ; over them, the impalpable sky — 
this was the vision which burst suddenly upon the tired 
eyes of the pilgrims. 

When they had proceeded a little farther they caught 
sight of a large fresh lake some miles to the south, emp- 
tying its surplus waters into an inland sea through a 
slender river, which shone like a ribbon of silver. The 
comparison suggested by these strange conditions might 
have occurred to a duller mind than that of Brigham 
Young, Avho felt that he was a Moses leading a new tribe 
of Israel to a new promised land. The fresh lake was 
the sea of Tiberius ; the salt one, the Dead Sea ; the 
river was, of course, the Jordan. This, then, was the 
new Palestine, and here the leader and his followers 
would build the new Jerusalem ! Advancing a few 
miles into the valley, and halting near the banks of a 
roaring brook, Brigham Young struck his staff upon the 
ground and exclaimed, '' Here we will rear our temple in 

53 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

holiness to the Lord." It is above this spot that Sculp- 
tor Dallin's graceful figure of the Angel Moroni now 
looks down from a stately pile of Utah granite, reared 
at a cost of forty years' labor and six million dollars. 

The pioneers possessed very little cash capital when 
they arrived in the valley which was to be the heart of a 
future commonwealth. This was not a serious misfort- 
une, since there was little that money would buy in 
Utah at that time, or anywhere within one thousand 
miles east, west, north, or south. They had located at 
almost the exact geographical centre of that great arid 
region whose modern agricultural era they were destined 
to inaugurate. Surrounded by extraordinary wealth, 
there was but one thing which could pass current as a 
medium of exchange in this primeval wilderness. This 
one thing was labor, and the free and unlimited coinage 
of labor has been the cardinal doctrine in Utah's econom- 
ic faith from the beginning down to the present hour. 
Besides their willing industry, the Mormons had brought 
with them the contents of seventy-two wagons, about 
one hundred horses, less than half as many mules and 
oxen, nineteen cows and a few chicken. It was with this 
capital that they began the making of Utah. But at the 
very threshold of their life in a new country they were 
confronted by something utterly strange to them in the 
conditions of agriculture. 

First of the Anglo-Saxon race, the Mormons encount- 
ered the problem of aridity, and discovered that its suc- 
cessful solution was the price of existence. Brigham 
Young had lived in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, and Il- 
linois. Neither he nor any of his followers had ever 
seen a country where the rainfall did not suflBce for agri- 

54 




MAP SHOWING THE STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN PALESTINE 
AND SAI/r I>AKE VALLEY, UTAH 

(By courtesy of tlio I!io (Jramlo Wosicrii K R) 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

cnltnre, nor ever read of one save in the Bible. But 
they quickly learned that they had staked their whole 
future upon a region which could not produce a spear of 
tame grass, an ear of corn, nor a kernel of wheat with- 
out skilful irrigation. Of the art of irrigation they 
were utterly ignorant. But the need of beginning a 
planting was urgent and pressing, for their slender stock 
of provisions would not long protect them from starva- 
tion. 

It was this emergency which produced the first irriga- 
tion canal ever built by white men in the United States. 
Mormons are prone to believe that the suggestion of this 
work was a revelation from God to the head of the 
Church. Other traditions ascribe it to the advice of 
friendly Indians ; to the example of the Mexicans ; to 
the shrewd intuition with which the leader had met all 
the trials encountered in the course of his adventurous 
pilgrimage. Whatever the source of the inspiration, he 
quickly set his men at work to divert the waters of City 
Creek through a rude ditch and to prepare the ground 
for Utah's first farm. These crystal waters now furnish 
the domestic supply for a city of sixty thousand inhabi- 
tants. The late President Wilford Woodruff, Avho was 
one of the party assigned to the work of digging the first 
canal, related that when the water was turned out upon 
the desert the soil was so hard that the point of a plough 
would scarcely penetrate it. There was also much white 
alkali on the surface. It was, therefore, with no absolute 
conviction of success that the pioneers planted the very 
last of their stock of potatoes and awaited the result of 
the experiment. The crop prospered in spite of all ob- 
stacles, and demonstrated that a living could be wrung 

55 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

from the forbidding soil of tlie desert when men should 
learn to adapt their industry to the conditions. 

Such was the humble beginning of modern agriculture 
in Arid America. The success of this desperate expedi- 
ent to preserve the existence of a fugitive people in the 
vast solitude has made Utah our chissic land of irrigation, 
and given the Mormons their just claim as the pioneer 
irrigators of the United States. It was not, however, 
until they survived other hardships, including the devas- 
tation of their first crops by swarms of crickets, that the 
hardy settlers Avere able to celebrate a genuine harvest- 
home, and to feel that the ground was at last firm be- 
neath their feet. Then began that long era of material 
prosperity which will never cease until the people depart 
from the industrial system established by Brigham 
Young. 

It is this industrial system which makes the Mormons 
well worthy of study at this time. Nothing just like it 
exists elsewhere upon any considerable scale, yet its 
leading principles are certainly cajoable of general appli- 
cation. Good Mormons regard the system, like all their 
blessings, as a direct revelation of God. Many others 
consider it the intellectual product of a great man^s 
brain. But when it is studied in connection with Mor- 
mon colonization, it is plain that the system was born of 
the necessities of the jilace and time — that it is the legit- 
imate j)roduct of the peculiar environment of the arid 
region. The forces that have made the civilization of 
Utah will make the civilization of western America. It 
is in this view of the matter that we shall find our justi- 
fication for a careful study of the Mormon structure of 
industry and society. 

56 



TUE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

The economic life of Utah is founded on the general 
ownership of land. Speaking broadly, all are proprie- 
tors, none are tenants. Land monopoly was discounte- 
nanced from the beginning. All were encouraged to 
take so much land as they could apply to a beneficial 
purpose. None were permitted to secure land merely to 
hold it out of use for speculation. The corner-stone of 
the system was industrialism — the theory that all should 
work for what they were to have, and that all should 
have what they had worked for. In order to realize 
this result, it was necessary that each family should own 
as much land as it could use to advantage, and no more. 

The adoption of this principle was plainly due to the 
peculiar conditions which the leader saw about him. He 
instantly realized that value resided in water rather than 
in land ; that there was much more laud than water ; 
that water could only be conserved and distributed at 
great expense. 

If he had settled in a land of abundant rainfall it is 
improbable that he would have set such severe limitations 
upon the amount of laud which individuals should ac- 
quire. In that case he would, perhaps, have thought it 
well for his people to take all the land they could possibly 
obtain under the law, and thus enjoy large speculative 
possibilities. But if he had pursued this policy in Utah 
he could not have accommodated the thousands whom 
he expected to follow him in the early future. He thus 
found it imperatively necessary to restrict the amount of 
land which each family should acquire, suiting it to their 
actual needs. He came from a country Avhicli had been 
settled in farms ranging from two hundred to four hun- 
dred acres in size. The reduction in the farm unit 

57 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

which he now proposed must have seemed nothing less 
than startling to his followers. It is plain that in pro- 
posing such an innovation he not only comprehended the 
social necessities of the situation, but anticipated, with 
remarkable foresight, the possibilities of intensive agri- 
culture by means of irrigation. 

The first settlement which he planned was, of course, 
Salt Lake City and its neighborhood. This became the 
model of all future colonies. It was laid out in such a 
way as to secure an equitable division of laud values 
among all the inhabitants. 

The city blocks consist of ten acres each, divided into 
eight lots of one and a quarter acres. These lots were 
assigned to professional and business men. Next there 
was a tier of five-acre lots. These Avere assigned to me- 
chanics. Then there were tiers of ten-acre and of twenty- 
acre lots. These went to farmers, according to the size 
of their families. Under this arrangement every colon- 
ist was a small landed proprietor, owning a certain 
amount of irrigated soil from which he could readily pro- 
duce the necessities of life. The division of land values 
was remarkably even, for what one man lacked in 
area of his possessions he gained in location. The small 
lots were close to the centre of business ; the large lots 
more remote from that centre. As the place grew in 
course of years from an emigrants' camp to a populous 
city, with paved streets, domestic water, electric lights, 
and railways, the inevitable rise in values was distributed 
with remarkably even hand. Not a single family or indi- 
vidual failed to share in the great fund of " unearned 
increment " which arose from increasing population and 
growing public improvements. 

58 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

This principle of universal land ownership, and of care- 
ful division according to location and of differing needs 
of various classes, has been followed throughout the 
Mormon settlements of Utah and surrounding States, 
and is being duplicated to-day in the latest colonies es- 
tablished by this people. 

It is important to note that the Mormon laud system 
rested on individual proprietorship. There never was 
any attempt at community ownership. The unit of the 
State was the family and the home. But the moment 
we pass from the sphere of individual labor we encounter 
another principle, which was always applied, though not 
always by the same methods, to public utilities. This 
was the princiiDle of public ownership) and control. 

If the Mormon leaders had desired to organize their 
industrial life in a way to make large private fortunes 
for themselves, no single item in the list of Utah's re- 
sources would have offered a better chance for specula- 
tion than the water supply. It was perfectly feasible 
under the law for private individuals or companies to ap- 
propriate these waters, construct canals, sell water rights, 
and collect annual rental. By adopting this method, 
which widely prevails in other western States, they could 
have laid every field, orchard, and garden — every in- 
dividual and family — under tribute to them and their 
descendants forever. Neither in law nor in practice, at 
that time, was it any more a moral and economic wrong 
to appropriate privately and hold against the public the 
natural wealth of the streams than it was to do the same 
with the natural wealth of the mineral belts on govern- 
ment land. 

Probably the Mormons owed their escape from the 

59 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

misfortune of private irrigation works mostly to the fact 
that this feature of their institutions was established when 
none of their people possessed sufficient private capital to 
engage in costly enterprises. They started upon a basis 
of equality, for they were equally poor. They could buy 
water rights only with their labor. Tiiis labor they ap- 
plied in co-operation, and canal stock was issued to each 
man in proportion to the amount of work he had con- 
tributed to its construction. This in turn was deter- 
mined by the amount of land he owned, the owner of 
twenty acres doing just twice as much work as the owner 
of ten. Here we see the influence of aridity not only 
favoring, but compelling, the adoption of the principle 
of associative enterprise, as mentioned in a previous 
chapter. But before discussing the wider results of this 
influence in the life of Utah, it is important to observe 
the characteristic forms of agriculture which grew out 
of these new conditions. 

We have seen that Brigham Young had made twenty 
acres the maximum size of farms in the Salt Lake settle- 
ment. He now proceeded to lay down a philosophy very 
different from that which prevailed on the large farms 
of the wheat and corn country whence he had come. He 
urged that each family should realize the nearest possi- 
ble approach to absolute industrial independence within 
the boundaries of its own small farm. His sermons in 
the tabernacle dealt less in theology than in worldly com- 
mon-sense. The result is an agricultural system peculiar 
to Utah. 

Just as we have the cotton-belt in Texas, the corn-belt 
in Nebraska, the wheat-belt in Dakota, and the orange- 
district in California, so in Utah we have the land of the 

60 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

diversified farm. This is the first and one of the most 
precious fruits of the industrialism which had been so 
deeply rooted in the plan of general land ownership. 

Much of the misfortune which the settlers of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley have endured during the past decade is 
due to the fact that their industrial system was founded 
on the speculative instinct. They acquired large farms, 
because they hoped to get rich out of the rise in land. 
They engaged in the production of single crops, because 
they were gambling on the hope of great prices for these 
staples. They mortgaged their homesteads to make 
costly improvements, because they had the utmost faith 
in future big prices for the land and its product. It 
is very easy to comprehend the virtues of Utah industrial- 
ism when we may make use of a Texas cotton plantation 
or a Dakota wheat farm for a background. In the one 
case we see the little unmortgaged farm, its crops in- 
sured by irrigation, systematically producing a variety of 
things required for the family consumption. A generous' 
living is within the control of the proprietor of such a 
home. In the other case we see the single crop exposed 
to the mercy of the weather and the markets, its owner 
employing many hired hands, and going to the town to 
buy with cash nearly all that is necessary to feed his 
family and laborers. 

The Utah system was clearly the outgrowth of the 
peculiar conditions with which the Mormons dealt. They 
were so far removed from all centres of production as to 
make self-suflQciency an imperative condition of existence. 
Hence they were taught the gospel of industrial inde- 
pendence in its purest and most primitive form. And 
self-sufficiency is the most striking characteristic of their 

61 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

civilization to-day. Wars and panics have swept the 
country since the pioneers built their homes in Salt Lake 
Valley, but they and theirs have not gone hungry for a 
day or an hour. Nor need they do so while water runs 
down hill and mother earth yields her increase. 

The conquest of Utah began with the establishment 
of agriculture, which is everywhere the foundation of 
civilization. Brigham Young realized, as the American 
people may well do to-day, that there can be no prosper- 
ity if agriculture languishes. He realized that whatever 
the Mormon people might have in the future — whatever 
of factories, stores, and banks, whatever of churches tem- 
ples, and tabernacles — must come primarily from the 
surplus profits of the soil. 

As soon as his people had been supplied with food and 
shelter, he turned his attention to the development of a 
broader industrial life. Workshops, stores, and banks 
were necessary to furnish facilities for manufacture, dis- 
ti'ibution, and exchange. All these enterprises were un- 
dertaken in a co-operative way under the familiar forms 
of the joint-stock company. Those who were unwilling 
to engage in them upon these terms generally left the 
church and set up for themselves. At the beginning 
there was no capital for such undertakings except the 
capital which resided in every man's land and labor — no 
wealth but the commonwealth. As all had started on a 
basis of equality, so all were given an equ^l chance to 
participate in the new industrial, mercantile, and bank- 
ing enterprises of the Territory. When a factory or 
store was to be started subscription papers were circu- 
lated and everybody urged to take some of the stock. 
Payments were made sometimes in cash, more often in 

62 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

products, not infrequently in labor. Of one thing there 
has never been a scarcity in Utah — this is the chance to 
work. And labor has always been exchangeable there 
for other commodities, including bank and mercantile 
stock. Otherwise it would not have been possible to 
have secured anything like the wide distribution of these 
stocks which now prevails. 

In the early years the industries were of a crude sort. 
Everything had to be hauled in ox-teams over a thousand 
miles of deserts, plains, and mountains. The people 
used almost no money in their daily transactions. As a 
medium of exchange they had printed slips of paj^er 
known as " tithing-house scrip." This answered every 
purpose of exchange money, while the prices of com- 
modities were regulated by the standard of values which 
prevailed elsewhere. But while the local scrip did very 
well for all home purposes, it did not enable the people 
to purchase the supplies of machinery which they need- 
ed from abroad. The process of equipping their factories 
was, therefore, necessarily slow, but they rapidly devel- 
oped an army of skilled artisans, which was constantly 
augmented by immigration. But even without assis- 
tance from the great world which lay so far beyond the 
borders of their own valleys marvellous progress was 
achieved in the arts and industries. 

Brigham Young was strenuously opposed to the de- 
velopment of the mines by his people, believing that 
what they might gain in wealth from that source would 
be much more than offset by the demoralization which 
would come to his industrial forces with the rise of the 
speculative spirit. Above all other virtues he placed 
that of sober industry, earning its bread in the sweat of 

63 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

men's faces. That the mines would some day be worked 
by " Gentiles " he had no doubt, and he rightly calcu- 
lated that his own people would enjoy more prosperity 
by feeding the miners than by working the mines. A 
few of the many millions afterwards taken from the 
mountains around Salt Lake would have facilitated the 
growth and equipment of the Mormon industries im- 
mensely during the early years. But time and patience 
accomplished in the end all — perhaps more than an 
abundance of original capital might have done. Nearly 
all the industries essential to a complex and symmetrical 
business economy have been established for many years. 
Every important settlement has its co-operative store 
and bank. From the great beet-sugar factory at Lehi 
down to the smallest mercantile enterprise in the small- 
est hamlet, the business is owned by a multitude of stock- 
holders. 

The capital represents the surplus profits of the many. 
The system bears no likeness to Socialism. Nothing is 
owned by virtue of citizenship nor of membership in 
the church. No one owns a dollar's worth of stock who 
has not earned and paid for it. The system is nothing 
but the joint-stock company with what may be called a 
generous and friendly interpretation. That is to say, it 
is really desired that everybody shall have an interest, 
and that all shall share the benefits. It should not be 
understood by any means that all have an equal owner- 
ship in these various enterprises, for the Mormon system 
has not resulted in making men equally successful. All 
have had an equal chance however, and the weak have 
been watched over and assisted by the strong. In- 
deed, this latter is one of the few good results to be 

64 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

credited to the exercise of church authority in secular 
affairs. 

It would be quite impracticable to attempt to fol- 
low the history of any considerable number of the many 
co-operative enterprises of Utah. Neither are figures 
available for a satisfactory generalization of results. 
Bat the whole system is typified in the experience of one 
monumental enterprise — Zion's Co-operative Mercantile 
Institution. This great house is in a sense the mother 
and the model of all the Mormon stores in Utah and its 
surrounding States. Mr. Thomas Gr. Webber, the suc- 
cessful superintendent of " Z. C. M. I.," as it is famil- 
iarly called, describes the history of the enterprise as 
follows ; 

" The Institution was organized October IG, 1868 ; 
commenced business March 1, 1869 ; was incorporated 
for twenty-five years from October 5, 1870, and the 
capital was then 1220,000. It was reincorporated for 
fifty years September 30, 1895, with a capital stock of 
$1,077,000. 

" During the life of our first incorporation period we 
have sold 176,352,686 worth of merchandise, and j)aid to 
the railroad and express companies for freight #6,908,630. 

"We have paid out in cash dividends 11,990,943.55, 
and in stock dividends $414,944.77. During the panic 
in 1873, for prudential reasons, we passed our dividend, 
and continued to do so until 1877, but during the whole 
of the period we have been in business, some twenty- 
seven years, we have paid to our stockholders an average 
dividend of nine and one-third per cent, for each and 
every year, or two hundred and forty-three per cent, in 
all ; $1,000 invested in our capital stock on the 1st of 
£ 65 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

March, 1869, at the end of September, 1895, when onr 
incorporation ran ont, had accumulated to $2,014.30, 
and in addition to this we have paid upon this 11,000 in 
cash dividends the sum of 14,218.05. 

" We have turned out in our manufacturing depart- 
ments boots and shoes to the value of $2,053,294.43, and 
in our duck clothing and shirt factory upwards of 
$80,000 worth. Last year (1895) it was an off-year with 
our manufacturing departments, but we turned out 
75,400 pairs of boots and shoes, and 15,648 dozen over- 
alls, shirts, etc." 

This is the history of Utah's largest co-operative un- 
dertaking. It is a history which no friend of co-operative 
effort will blush to read, for it proves that a great busi- 
ness can be as successfully administered in the interest 
of the many as in the interest of a few. The latest 
and largest of the Mormon industrial enterprises is the 
beet -sugar factory, owned by seven hundred stock- 
holders, which in 1895 produced considerably more than 
700,000,000 pounds of sugar and paid a cash dividend 
of ten per cent. Its later dividends are much larger. 
It also furnished a profitable market for the products of 
many irrigated fields. 

While the most satisfactory results of co-operative en- 
terprise have been obtained in the last two decades, much 
was achieved in the early day. As early as 1850, when 
Salt Lake Valley had been settled less than three years, 
the industrial products amounted to only a little less 
than three hundred thousand dollars. Ten years later 
they had mounted nearly to the million mark, and in 
1870 they considerably exceeded two and a quarter mill- 
ions. In 1895 the total was close to six millions. The 

66 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

growth of these hard-won industries has naturally fos- 
tered a feeling of intense loyalty to home products. 
Foreign goods are not a badge of honor. The Utah man 
wears Utah clothes, made in Utah factories, from wool 
sheared from the back of Utah sheep, with the same 
pride that a New York man wears a London hat and a 
New York woman a Paris gown. 

Let us look now at the broader results of the Mormon 
labor in the wilderness. The church historian, Mr. A. 
Milton Musser, has made a careful estimate of the finan- 
cial results which may fairly be credited to the irriga- 
tion industi-y in Utah. In doing so he communicated 
with church leaders throughout the State and compiled 
the results of his correspondence with the utmost care. 
The statement is given Just as he prepared it, without 
attempt to discuss it in detail. To fully comprehend it 
however, the reader must remember that the Mormons 
began in poverty, having almost nothing to invest ex- 
cept the labor of their hands and brains, and that all 
they have expended in a period of nearly fifty years for all 
classes of improvements — from the first shanty to the 
last turret of the last temple — came primarily from the 
soil. Here is the balance-sheet of the Mormon people as 
Mr. Musser prepared it : 

Cost of establishing the 10,000 farms ($187.50 

per farm per annum) $75,000,000 

Cost of making irrigation canals and ditches 

($37.50 per farm per annum) 15,000,000 

Cost of irrigating 10,000 farms and gardens 

($24.00 each per annum) 9,600,000 

Building factories 5,000,000 

Building temples 8,000,000 

67 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Building churches and schools $4,000,000 

Cost of missionary work 10,000,000 

Cost of immigrating and sustaining the poor 8,000,000 

Living of the farmers ($875 to each family 

per annum) 350,000,000 

Cost of roads and bridges in mountains and 

valleys 4,000.000 

Cost of Indian wars, building forts, stockades, 

breaking up settlements, etc 5,000,000 

Cost of feeding and clothing Indians and 
establishing Indian missions, farms, 
schools, etc 2,000,000 

Cost of resisting the invasion of the army of 
1857, and of the people of Salt Lake 
county and the counties north moving 
south into middle and southern Utah 6,000,000 

Loss sustained by crickets, locusts, and grass- 
hoppers 2,500,000 

Unsuccessful early experiments in making 
iron, sugar, paper, nails, leather, cotton- 
raising, mining, etc 6,000,000 

Cost of defence against anti-polygamy legisla- 
tion believed to be unconstitutional 3,000,000 

Heavy freight rates from the Missouri river 

and the Pacific coast before the railroads 8,000,000 

Cost of establishing the Overland Mail and 
Express Company, purchase of Fort 
Bridger, and establishment of Fort Sup- 
ply, abandoned and afterward absorbed 
by the army of 1857 2,000,000 

Protecting overland travel, succoring and 
feeding California, Oregon, and other 
emigrants 1,500,000 

Cost of colonizing Carson and Green River 
counties, abandoned because of the 
army of 1857 2,000,000 

Cost of establishing colonies on Salmon 

68 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

river, in Lower California, and the sugar 

plantation near Honolulu $1,500,000 

Cost of local telegraph aad railroad lines 3,000,000 

Cost of obtaining fuel, and building and 
fencing materials, from the rugged 
mountains and canyons many miles away 10,000,000 
Cost of making settlements on the Muddy, 
Call's Landing, Florence, Sunset, and 
other localities, afterwards abandoned be- 
cause of adverse conditions subsequently 

developed 1,000,000 

Losses by fire ($20,000 per annum) 800,000 

Taxes 8,000,000 

Miscellaneous expenditures 13,000,000 

$562,900,000 
Less the personal property brought into Utah 
by immigrants, such as cattle, wagons, 
cash, etc 20,000,000 

$543,900,000 

In his note transmitting these fignres Mr. Musser 
writes: "The inclosed has been submitted to the inspec- 
tion of Presidents Woodruff, Cannon, and Smith, and 
Bishops Preston, Burton, and Winder, as well as to others 
conversant with such matters. All agree that the esti- 
mates are as fair as they can be given." And he adds, 
with a reverence characteristic of his people: "While 
much of our prosperity is due to industrious, temperate, 
and frugal habits of life, yet we never lose sight of the 
overruling hand of the Almighty in all these results, and 
to Him be given praise and thanksgiving without stint 

In a private letter accompanying these statistics His- 
torian Musser directed attention to the fact that upon 
this showing each Mormon farmer enjoyed an average 

69 



j> 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

income of fonr hundred and eighty-two dollars above the 
cost of living for each of the more than forty years which 
the statement covers. This is a considerably higher re- 
turn than the gross amount averaged by wage earners in 
the United States. 

While in many particulars this imposing statement of 
results may be open to criticism, there can be no doubt 
that it was prej)ared with conscientious care. It is pre- 
sented here for what it may be worth. To the writer it 
seems to confirm the imj^ression of a vast material achieve- 
ment which comes to any person upon visiting Utah and 
looking about him. For the present purpose the precise 
statistical facts are of less consequence than the economic 
principles which have produced what everybody acknowl- 
edges to be a wonderful result. These principles may be 
briefly summarized as follows : 

GENEKAL LAND OWNERSHIP, LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT 
WHICH FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS COULD APPLY TO A 
USEFUL PURPOSE. 

SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE, AIMING AT THE 
COMPLETE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE OF THE PEOPLE, IN- 
DIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY. 

THE PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC UTILITIES, SUCH AS 
WATER SUPPLY FOR IRRIGATION AND DOMESTIC USES. 

THE CO-OPERATIVE, OR ASSOCIATIVE, OWNERSHIP AND 
ADMINISTRATION OF STORES, FACTORIES, AND BANKS, 
THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF THE JOINT-STOCK COMPANY. 

These are the underlying principles of the Mormon 
commonwealth. They are vindicated by the successful 
experience of the last half century. Nowhere else do so 
large a percentage of the people own their homes free 
from incumbrance. Nowhere else has labor received so 

70 



THE MORiMON COMMONWEALTH 

fair a share of what it has created. Nowhere else has the 
common prosperity been reared upon firmer foundations. 
Nowliere else are institutions more firmly buttressed or 
better capable of resisting violent economic revolutions. 
The thnnder-cloud which passed over the land in 1893, 
leaving a path of commercial ruin from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, was powerless to close the door of a single 
Mormon store, factory, or bank. Strong in prosperity, 
the co-operative industrial and commercial system stood 
immovable in the hour of wide-spread disaster. The sol- 
vency of these industries is scarcely more striking than 
the solvency of the farmers from whom they draw their 
strength. No other Governor, either in the West or in the 
East, is able to say what the Honorable Heber M. Wells 
said in assuming the chief magistracy of the new State 
in January, 1896. " We have in Utah," said the young 
Governor, "19,816 farms, and 17,684 of them are abso- 
lutely free of incumbrance." A higher percentage in 
school attendance and a lower percentage of illiterates 
than even in the State of Massachusetts, is another of 
Utah's proud records. 

So far we have been dealing with facts that are be- 
yond dispute. No one can deny that the Mormon indus- 
trial and commercial system is correctly described in the 
foregoing pages, nor that that system has made the peo- 
ple remarkably prosperous in an economic sense. But 
for the purposes of this book it is highly essential to 
determine just what weight should be given to the Mor- 
mon experience as a guide for future colonization effort 
in the arid West, and to what degree the Utah system 
is founded upon correct principles of industrial and 
social economy. 

71 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The problem can be summed np in two questions 
which have doubtless already occurred to the reader : 
Was the Utah experience possible without Brighani 
Young ? Was Brigham Young possible without the 
Church ? 

The first of these questions may be answered unhesi- 
tatingly in the negative. Without a Brigham Young 
there could have been no such record of achievement in 
the deserts of Utah. He was the brains and the soul of 
the enterprise. He planned with extraordinary sagacity 
and wrought with tremendous vigor. Leave out that 
brain and soul — that sagacity and vigor — and we can 
conceive of no emigration from Nauvoo ; of no success- 
ful march over plain and mountain ; of no triumph over 
the almost insuperable difficulties which intervened be- 
tween the arrival of the people in Salt Lake Valley in 
1847 and the firmly established community of fifty years 
later. But what of that ? The concession of the indis- 
pensable fact of Brighani Young amounts only to the 
concession, equally applicable to all human undertak- 
ings of magnitude, that leadership is absolutely essen- 
tial. 

This brings us to the other and more complicated 
question: Was Brigham Young possible without the 
Church ? First let us see what manner of man he 
was. 

Born in Vermont, of good native stock, he had the 
characteristics of the place and the race in a pre-eminent 
degree. He was shrewd and thrifty, far-seeing and in- 
tensely practical. He was of coarse fibre, deficient in 
the finer feelings, and devoid of all imagination of the 
poetic kind. Of his innumerable sermons and speeches 

73 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

nothing survives save an occasional homely maxim, such 
as, " Plough deep and plant alfalfa." Like all his sayings 
and all his works, this marks the mind and method of 
the materialist rather than of the idealist. Whatever 
else he really thought of polygamy, he at least believed 
it a capital method of increasing the population of a new 
country, and that happened to be the particular work 
uj)on which his effort and ambition were engaged. 

A leader of men ? Most emphatically, but of the grim 
and masterful sort — a Cromwell rather than a Lincoln. 
While no orator, he had strong persuasive powers. These 
were supported by splendid enthusiasm and optimism. 
He could set men at work with the conviction in their 
minds that success was certain, failure impossible. 

This man was successful m what he undertook to do. 
He did not originate Mormonism. He added nothing 
to its creed or its literature, though he added much to 
its power. But finding the Mormons a despised and 
hunted people, he set himself the task of extricating 
them from intolerable surroundings, of leading them a 
thousand miles across an almost unexplored country, 
and of founding, in the midst of untried conditions, a 
commonwealth where they could rear their homes and 
temples and wax great and strong. Who can doubt that 
if he had undertaken to build a transcontinental rail- 
road, like Ames and Huntington; to found a j)ork-pack- 
ing business, like Armour ; or to lead an army, like Grant, 
he would have commanded success ? He had all the 
elements of a successful man in any of the greater walks 
of life where pluck and brains, determination and vast 
ambition, are the requisite qualities. If he was a relig- 
ious fanatic, there never was another of his comiDosition. 

73 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Poet or orator he could not have been ; seer, revelator, 
and ecclesiastic he was not, save to the superstitious 
vision of his blind followers ; but great, resourceful, and 
of commanding personality he was — a captain of industry, 
an organizer of prosperity; and the Utah of to-day is 
his undeniable claim to fame and his imperishable monu- 
ment. 

So much for the man. What of the Church ? It was 
unquestionably the instrument used in the settlement 
of Utah. It is being used to-day as an instrument in 
settling portions of Canada, Mexico, and other localities. 
Regarded simply as a Church, it is successful numerically 
and financially. It is one of the few creeds where secu- 
lar and religious affairs are brought into the closest as- 
sociation, and, for this reason, it is generally believed 
that church solidarity is the true explanation of the 
economic prosperity of the Mormons. This conclusion 
rests upon the theory that the Church sustains the in- 
dustrial system. The writer emphatically dissents from 
this notion, and confidently asserts that precisely the re- 
verse is the truth — that the industrial system sustains 
the Church. 

The principles upon which the Mormon industrial and 
social structure was reared have been carefully presented 
in this chapter. These principles have worked success- 
fully for fifty years. To determine the part which they 
had in the actual result, let us ask ourselves this ques- 
tion : Suppose the plans initiated by Brigham Young had 
failed to give his followers the security of a home and 
the certainty of a living ; that their co-operative industry 
had produced losses rather than profits ; that their vil- 
lage system had brought social discontent instead of 

74 



THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 

satisfaction — what then ? Is it conceivable that religious 
fanaticism could have held them together and lent such 
an impulse to their growth that to-day, over a quarter 
of a century after the death of Brigham Young, they 
should be growing faster than ever before, maintaining 
more missionaries and building more colonies in various 
parts of the world ? Surely economic fallacy never pro- 
duced such striking results as these in any other instance 
known to history. 

It would perhaps be a tenable position to say that in 
Utah a sound economic system, working in conjunction 
with religious enthusiasm, produced the result now 
known of all men ; but that would be very nearly equiva- 
lent to saying that the only way to solve the problem of 
reclamation and settlement in the arid regions is to turn 
the task over to the Mormon Church and to advise all 
who crave homes to join that organization. The writer 
believes that the attraction of Mormonism has consisted 
mostly in what it offered to the home-seeker, and that 
the secret of its cohesion is the prosperity that has re- 
sulted from its industrial system rather than the occult 
power of its creed. 

Polygamy has so stirred the Christian world that no 
man may speak in praise of any of the Mormon institu- 
tions except at the risk of being misunderstood, or pos- 
sibly regarded as an apologist for what the nation has 
condemned as a crime against womanhood. On the 
other hand, no candid mind can study the problem which 
confronts the American people — the problem of opening 
the door to the masses of our citizenship upon the un- 
used natural resources of the nation — without realizing 
that Brigham Young and the State he founded furnish 

75 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

stronger and clearer light for the future of domestic 
colonization than any other experience that can possibly 
be discovered. It is in the earnest conviction that it is 
a high public service to show the virtues of the Mormon 
industrial system that this chapter is written. 



! 



CHAPTER II 
THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

The Greeley Colony of Colorado sprang belated from 
the seed of Fourierism sown broadcast in the forties. 
In all our social history there is no more interesting page 
than that which records the rise, progress, and tem- 
porary defeat of the doctrine of association. Fraught 
with tlie noblest aspirations, and welcomed and cham- 
pioned by the most brilliant minds, it disappointed, in 
actual practice, the high hopes of its friends. Fran9ois 
Marie Charles Fourier devoted his life to elaborating his 
scheme of Socialism, and died a few years before the 
seed of his thought was wafted across the Atlantic to 
take sudden root in our soil. 

The American impulse of Fourierism arose from the 
miseries of the hard winter of 1838. The doctrine had 
been imported by Albert Brisbane, a young gentleman of 
wealth and leisure who had studied the works of the 
French jDhilosopher in Paris and returned to this country 
warm with these new hopes for humanity. Availing 
himself of the opportunity offered by the universal dis- 
content, he plunged boldly into the agitation and at- 
tracted a remarkable degree of attention. Horace 
Greeley, then in the morning of his fame, espoused the 
new cause, at first cautiously, then with cliaracteristic 

77 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

energy and daring. The period of agitation covered the 
years between 1840 and 1847. The men of thought soon 
won the confidence of the men of action, and a large 
number of associations for the purpose of bringing 
Fourierism to the practical test were formed in various 
States. In May, 1843, Mr. Greeley wrote in the Tribune: 
'' The doctrine of association is spreading throughout 
the country with a rapidity which we did not anticipate, 
and of which we had but little hope. We receive papers 
from nearly all parts of the northern and western States, 
and some from the South, containing articles upon as- 
sociation, in which general views and outlines of the 
system are given. Efforts are making in various parts 
of this State, in Vermont, in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and 
Illinois, to establish associations, which will probably be 
successful in the course of the present year." 

There was not much difficulty in obtaining recruits for 
these undertakings, and the experiment was entered 
upon with great enthusiasm. With a single exception, 
it ended in failure. The most famous of these colonies 
was Brook F^arm, at West Roxbury, nine miles from 
Boston. Rev. George Ripley was the head of the enter- 
prise. With him were associated, either as actual col- 
onists or active sympathizers and supporters, Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau, 
James Freeman Clarke, William Ellery Channing, Bron- 
son Alcott, George Bancroft, Charles A. Dana, Margaret 
Fuller, and many others whose names rank high in the 
annals of American literature. Never before, and never 
afterwards, was such a galaxy of brains assembled in a 
single colony. Most of them were then in young man- 
hood, with their fame all before them. But the historian 

78 



THE GKEELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

of the enterprise sadly relates that, at the end of their 
first year they found they had a surplus of philosophers 
and a dearth of men who could hoe potatoes. And New 
England has been smiling about Brook Farm ever since. 
The end of Fourierism in the United States was the joint 
debate between Horace Greeley and Henry J. Kaymond 
in their respective newspapers, the Tribune and the 
Courier, of New York. 

In the minds of the devoted constituency of the New 
York Tribune, the idea of colony-planting as a means of 
improving the lot of average humanity had taken deep 
root, so that twenty-five years after Fourier's dream had 
ceased to flourish as a social experiment, a colony repre- 
senting its hopes, if not its methods, could gain supporters. 

The new venture was initiated by Nathan Cook Meeker, 
who had succeeded Solon Robinson as agricultural editor 
of the New Y^'ork Tribune at the close of the war. In 
1844 Mr. Meeker had been an active participant in the 
Trumbull Phalanx at Warron, Ohio. This had expired 
of ague, poverty, and dissension, after a fitful career of 
about three years. " If the place had been healthy," 
Mr. Meeker said afterwards, " we should have held out 
longer, and the idle and improvident would have got 
more out of the industrious and patient ; but I have no 
reason to suppose that we should not have finally ex- 
ploded, either in some fight, or at least in disgust." 
From this experience he emerged disappointed and des- 
titute, but with valuable lessons for the future and un- 
shaken faith in the utility of colonization effort. The 
knowledge thus dearly bought he was destined to apply, 
many years later, iu a useful career as one of the found- 
ers of a State. 

79 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

In the fall of 18G9 Mr. Meeker had returned from a 
trip to the Far West, the object of which was to describe 
the Mormon industrial system in a series of letters to the 
Tribune. Encountering a snow blockade at Cheyenne, 
which compelled him to postpone his visit to Utah, he 
had gone to Colorado instead. It was at the time when 
the Kansas Pacific Railroad was pushing across the plains 
to the budding village of Denver, transforming the wag- 
on-trail into a highway of civilization. Everywhere Mr. 
Meeker beheld the dawn of a new industrial life in the 
midst of a wilderness. He was charmed with the climate 
and scenery, and impressed with the material wealth of 
the country's undeveloped resources. The old enthusi- 
asm for colony-making filled his imagination. Wearied 
with a life struggle to remodel old social structures, he 
longed to avail himself of this opportunity to build on 
new foundations. 

These hopes he communicated to his friend, John Rus- 
sell Young, who agreed to bring the matter to the atten- 
tion of Horace G-reeley. This he did at a dinner held at 
Delmonico's in December, 18G9. Mr. Greeley was in- 
stantly interested, and beckoned Mr. Meeker to Join him 
at the table. " I understand you have a notion to start 
a colony to go to Colorado," said the editor. "Well," 
he continued, '^I wish you would take hold of it, for I 
think it will be a great success, and if I could, I would 
go myself." Thus assured of powerful backing, Mr. 
Meeker at once proceeded to form his plans. 

The prospectus of the new colony was drawn up by 
Mr. Meeker, but carefully weighed and revised by Mr. 
Greeley. A quarter of a century had elapsed since these 
men had been engaged — the one as active participant, 

80 



TUE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

the other as the most conspicuous American champion — 
in the Fourier scheme of association. It is interesting to 
observe just how much of the old plan survived in the 
new colony prospectus, when the thought of these leaders 
had been mellowed and broadened by many more years of 
life and experience. 

In the Fourier communities the people had lived to- 
gether under one roof, in the hope of effecting large 
household economies. There had been common owner- 
ship of land, and an attempt at equal division of labor. 
The unit of the community was the whole ; the only in- 
dividual, the public. 

In forming the plan of the new colony the lessons of 
experience were not forgotten. There was but a single 
suggestion of the " phalanstery," or common household 
of Fourier days, and that was advanced in timid terms. 
*'It seems to me," Mr. Meeker wrote, "that a laundry 
and bakery might be established, and the washing and 
baking done for all the community ; but other household 
work should be done by the families." It was provided 
that the unit of society should be the family, living under 
its own roof ; that farms and homes should be owned 
independently ; that individuals should plan their own 
labor, and rise or fall by their industry and thrift, or lack 
of them. The new ideal was that of an organized com- 
munity which should give the people the benefit of as- 
sociation without hampering individual enterprise and 
ability. It furnished a means of settlement essentially 
different from that under which the Middle West had 
been developed. 

Land was to be purchased on a large scale with a com- 
mon fund. This cheapened its cost, and gave the col- 
F 81 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

onists au imi^ortant measure of control in its sab - di- 
vision and development. The settlement was to be made 
almost wholly in a village, the land being divided into 
blocks of ten acres, and the blocks into eight lots for 
building purposes. It was proposed to apportion each 
family "from forty to eighty, even one hundred and six- 
ty acres," adjoining the village. Northampton, in Mass- 
achusetts, and several other New England towns and vil- 
lages, had been settled in this manner. A feature of 
much interest was the proposal to have the residence and 
business lots sold for the benefit of the colony's treasury, 
the capital so obtained to be appropriated for public im- 
provements, such as building a church, a town-hall, and 
a school -house, and establishing a public library. This 
plan marked an important departure in town-making. 
Town sites, as a rule, especially where the community 
promises a rapid growth, are treated as opportunities for 
private speculation. The boom comes, and everybody 
prospers ; the boom goes, and a few schemers have man- 
aged to acquire nearly all the cash capital. Under the 
new plan, as the prospectus pointed out, '' the increased 
value of real estate will be for the benefit of all the peo- 
ple." They would receive these benefits, too, in the best 
form, as in the shape of permanent improvements essen- 
tial to their social and intellectual well-being, and of 
capital available for industrial purposes. 

Other advantages of settling in a village were pre- 
sented as follows : " Easy access to schools and public 
places, meetings, lectures, and the like. In planting, in 
fruit-growing, and improving homes generally, the skill 
and experience of a few will be common to all, and 
much greater progress can be made than where each lives 

83 



THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

isolated. Eefined society and all the advantages of an 
old country will be secured in a few years ; while, on the 
contrary, where settlements are made by old methods 
people are obliged to wait twenty, forty, or more years." 

This prospectus was publislied in the New York Trib- 
une of December 14, 1869, with a hearty editorial indorse- 
ment. Spite of radical departures in the matter of 
private landholding and individual industry, the vital 
spirit of Fourierism lived and breathed through the cau- 
tious lines of the announcement. There was still the 
high ideal of social and civic life, of industrial indepen- 
dence, of a scheme of labor which should give to the la- 
borer an equitable share of what he produced. There 
was still the plan of co-operation in achieving things for 
the common benefit. There was still the craving for a 
society composed of sober, temperate, industrious people. 
The common household had been discarded for the family 
home and hearth-stone, but for the barbarism and isola- 
tion of life on great farms there had been substituted the 
association of homes in the village centre, with the best 
social and intellectual opportunities. Behind the new 
plan, as behind the old, stood the patient energy and faith 
of Meeker and the glorious optimism of Greeley. 

The announcement had met with a prompt and en- 
thusiastic response at the hands of several hundred peo- 
ple, who had organized the Union Colony of Colorado at 
a meeting held at the Cooper Institute in New York, 
where Horace Greeley had presided. A committee had 
selected twelve thousand acres of railroad and govern- 
ment land in the valley of the Cache la Poudre, twenty 
miles northwest of Denver, on the line of railway then 
building to Cheyenne. The pioneers of the colony were 

83 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

thus able to begin settlement in the spring of 1870, and 
to bring to the test of actual experience the social and 
industrial plans set forth in the prospectus. A party of 
eastern people, most of whom came from cities, they en- 
tered cheerfully upon the task of adjusting a high ideal 
to the untried conditions of a country which had previ- 
ously known only the Indian, the hunter, and the cow- 
boy. Their experience for the next twenty years has a 
larger significance than merely local history, since the 
community is one of the landmarks in western life. 

Mr. Meeker having refused the use of his own name, 
the new town was christened " Greeley," and this name 
was popularly applied to the colony also, in spite of its 
incorporated title. The first severe test of the co- 
operative principle, which had been relied upon for the 
larger enterprises, arose in connection with the building 
of canals. There had been no misconception as to the 
need of irrigation, but it was supposed that the works 
could be quickly constructed and the new methods of 
agriculture readily learned. The original estimate of 
cost was twenty thousand dollars. The actual outlay be- 
fore the works were completed reached four hundred 
and twelve thousand, or more than twenty times the es- 
timate. For resources to meet this unexpected demand, 
the colony had only receipts from the sales of property 
and the subscriptions and labor of its members. The re- 
sult was not reached without serious dissensions and 
some desertions, but the works were built, and the commu- 
nity survived with its co-operative principle intact. It is 
not to be believed that a private enterprise could have lived 
through a similar experience with the same slender finan- 
cial resources, for it was the public spirit and pride which 

84 



THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

saved the day at this critical juncture. These increased 
as difficulties multiplied, and rose with the tide of out- 
side criticism and abuse. The process welded the people 
together, and made them strong enough to meet success- 
fully the obstacles which yet remained. 

Having provided water for their lands, the settlers pro- 
ceeded to create the irrigation industry of Colorado ; for 
nothing worthy of the name existed on the scattered 
ranches of the sparsely settled Territory. The new- 
comers brought their intelligence to bear upon the prob- 
lem of perfecting skilful methods of irrigation and culti- 
vation, and of discovering the classes of crops best 
adapted to the soil and climate. This work quickly led 
them to realize another disappointment of serious import. 
They had dreamed of orchards and vineyards, and of 
homes set in the midst of beautiful flowers and delicate 
shrubbery. Experiment soon taught them that they had 
been deceived about the character of the country. The 
hopes which had been built upon the fruit industry failed 
utterly, and the colonists were compelled to fall back 
upon general farming. This involved somewhat larger 
farms, and rendered more difficult the realization of their 
social plans. Very likely it saved them from the evils 
of the single crop which has marred the prosperity of 
many agricultural districts. The diversified products of 
the soil yielded them a comfortable living. Since there 
was no hope of obtaining cash income from fruit, they 
sought another surplus crop, and found it in the potato, 
to which their soil proved to be peculiarly adapted. They 
made an exhaustive study of this culture, and at last pro- 
duced in the " Greeley potato" one of the famous crops of 
the West. Its superiority readily commands the best place 

85 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

in the market, and there have been years when the crop 
has returned a million dollars to the potato districts of 
which the colony is the centre. The farmers invented a 
pool system which frequently enabled them to control 
the output, and so influence prices in their favor. 

Events proved that the colonists were gainers by reason 
of the trials and disappointments which attended the 
establishment of their industrial life. Though the cost 
of their canals had so far outrun their expectations, they 
obtained their water supply much cheaper than did sub- 
sequent communities who patronized private companies. 
At Greeley the cost of a water-right for eighty acres was 
three hundred and fifty dollars. This made the user a 
proportionate owner of the works. Where canals were 
private, settlers paid twelve hundred dollars for precisely 
the same amount of water, while the works remained the 
property of a foreign corporation. The difference in the 
price of water under the two systems represented a very 
handsome dividend for those who had persisted in their 
allegiance to the co-operative principle. In the same 
way, the colonists profited from their struggle to realize 
the best agricultural methods. They won a reputation 
for their products which possessed actual commercial 
value, and they became the teachers of irrigation, furnish- 
ing practical examples to students of the subject and 
contributing largely to its literature. These results must 
be credited to the fact that the community was organized, 
and that the people acted with a common impulse. 

Passing now from the industrial to the civic side of the 
colony life, we find that the high public spirit in which 
the community was conceived left its marks not less in- 
delibly. In the original prospectus Mr. Meeker had 

86 



THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

plainly stated, " The persons with whom I would be will- 
ing to associate must be temperance men and ambitious 
to establish good society." This was no sounding phrase, 
for the founder and his fellow-colonists wrote their prin- 
ciples into the title deeds which transferred farm and 
village property from the company to individuals. These 
provided that if intoxicating liquor were ever manufact- 
ured or sold on the land, title should immediately revert 
to the colony. The provision was enforced with splendid 
intolerance. Those who were not in accord with its spirit 
had not been invited to come, nor were they made com- 
fortable while they stayed. Their unbending attitude on 
this subject gave the men of Greeley the title of '^Puri- 
tans," which was a unique distinction in the Far "West, 
in that day of cowboys and border ruffians. The prohi- 
bition clause in the deeds was stoutly resisted by a small 
minority, and went from court to court, until it was 
finally vindicated by the supreme tribunal at Washington. 
The Greeley local sentiment has always upheld the princi- 
ple, and insisted that it was responsible for the admitted- 
ly high character of the community. Like several of the 
colony's plans, it has been extensively imitated. 

The government of the community was vested in exe- 
cutive officers, but was actually ruled by public opinion. 
This found expression in numerous town meetings held 
in Colony Hall, which was one of the earliest buildings 
erected. Here all the public affairs Avere discussed with 
perfect frankness to the last detail, and no public officer 
ventured to stray far from the conclusions there pro- 
nounced. 

Not even the early hardships and disappointments 
were permitted to mar the social life of the colony. The 

87 



TUE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

people made the most of the opportunities offered by the 
association of homes in the vilhige, and organized a 
variety of social and intellectual diversions. At an early 
period an irreverent newspaper writer remarked: '^The 
town of Greeley is a delectable arena, for of the entire 
population three-fourths are members of clubs that are 
eternally in session. Day may sink into night, flowers 
may bloom and fade, and the seasons roll round with the 
year, but Greeley clubs are unchangeable." In one of 
the letters by which Mr. Meeker kept the readers of the 
New York Tribune informed of the progress of the com- 
munity, he spoke of these ''overflowing meetings," and 
said : " In all our experience we have never seen such in- 
stitutions so well sustained ; and if we wanted to show 
strangers the best that is to be seen of Greeley we would 
have them visit the Lyceum." 

David Boyd, who was both a prominent actor in these 
scenes and the historian of the colony, writes of the same 
subject, and throws a suggestive side-ligbt on a notable 
trait of western life when he says : " In coming to a 
country which offered so many new questions for solution 
and presented so many new aspects of life, the minds even of 
those past their prime experienced a sort of rejuvenation. 
Being nearly all strangers to one another, each was ambi- 
tious to begin his new record as well as j)ossible, and so 
put the best foot foremost." Here is the explanation of 
much of the superior energy which marks the life of new 
communities, and here lies the hope of social progress 
through colonization. The individuality all but obliter- 
ated in the great city springs anew and develops into 
blossom and fruitage in the fresh soil of colonial life. In- 
stitutions which would be quite impracticable in old and 

88 



THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

crowded centres get a footing in new countries, where 
men may exert untrammeled energies, and move freely 
in that atmosphere of social equality which is certain to 
characterize new communities and likely to endure while 
they continue small. 

In considering the net results of Greeley Colony, it is 
important to note first that it has been thoroughly suc- 
cessful. In this respect it presents a striking contrast to 
the Fourier experiment, from which it may be said to 
have descended. Each man prospered according to his 
merit, and what the community undertook to do by 
means of co-operation it accomplished. It cannot be said 
that the latter principle was applied extensively. The 
capital realized from the sale of property was so largely 
absorbed in the construction of canals as to leave little 
surplus for other industrial and commercial enterprises. 
If one-half of this capital had been available for stores, 
banks, and small industries, it is likely that much which 
was necessarily left to private initiative would have been 
undertaken by the colony. In that case we should find 
broader lessons in co-operative effort than we do now. It 
it is also important to note that the community owed its 
prosperity to its high ideal and uncompromising public 
spirit. There was here no common religious tie as in the 
early New England colonies ; no shadow of persecution 
such as that which bound the Mormon pioneers together 
in an indissoluble brotherhood. The nearest approach 
to this influence was the prohibition sentiment, and this 
formed but a small part of the original plan. These colo- 
nists were earnest men and women who had gone forth 
to make homes where they could combine industrial in- 
dependence with social equality and intellectual oppor- 

89 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

tnnity. They were grimly determined to accomplish 
what they had undertaken. This spirit, and this alone, 
kept them from going to pieces during the first five years, 
and laid the foundation for their permanent prosperity. 

Both Colorado and the arid West owe much to the ex- 
ample of Greeley. It lent an impulse to the develop- 
ment of their civic character, and made a deep and last- 
ing impression upon their agricultural industry. The 
influence of the community on its immediate surround- 
ings is yet more plainly visible. Its success resulted in 
large irrigation developments and numerous settlements 
in Colorado, Wyoming, and western Nebraska. A com- 
munity without a pauper or a millionaire, Greeley has 
yet had a surplus both of men and of capital to con- 
tribute to the making of new districts. The colony of 
to-day is a well-built town of comfortable homes and 
substantial business blocks, surrounded by well - culti- 
vated farms connected by a comprehensive canal system, 
which is the property of the land-owners. Although in 
periods of general business depression it has felt the 
heavy hand of hard times, few communities in the world 
possess a better assurance of a comfortable living in the 
future, while none has better educational and social ad- 
vantages. 

Horace Greeley followed the colony's development 
with the closest interest, writing frequent letters of ad- 
vice, and even finding time to pay a hurried visit. His 
last letter to Mr. Meeker, written six days before his 
death, was as follows : 

" Friend Meeker, — I presume you have already drawn on me 
for the one thousand dollars to buy land. If you have not, please 
do so at once. I have not much money, and probably never shall 

90 



THE GREELEY COLONY OF COLORADO 

have, but I believe in Union Colony and you, and consider this a 
good investment for my children." 

To N. 0. Meeker Mr. Greeley's death was, indeed, ca- 
lamitous. Depriving him of necessary income from news- 
paper sources, as well as of financial backing in the col- 
ony operations, it made it necessary for him to seek 
employment in the public service, and this was directly 
responsible for his death. He was massacred by the 
Indians while serving as agent on the White Eiver 
reservation. His work for the colony had been entirely 
unselfish, and his name deserves high rank among the 
founders of western civilization. 



CHAPTER III 
THE EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

The most valuable lessons in all tlie romantic history 
of California may be found in a trivial corner of the 
great commonwealth. Upon a clear day the eye may 
readily scan its entire length from the San Timoteo 
hills to the shining sea. Between its parallel mountain 
ranges the width of the district seems but two or three 
miles, though in reality it is from ten to twenty miles. 
Ignoring the nomenclature of local districts, this is the 
San Bernardino Valley. It is upon this narrow terri- 
tory that to a great degree the fame of California climate 
and productions rests. Here institutions have been 
created in the last thirty years which are destined to ex- 
ert a powerful influence upon the future of the AVest. 

What Holland was to the life of Europe in the four- 
teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, southern Cal- 
ifornia is to the life of the Pacific coast at the end of the 
nineteenth century. The industrial impulse which the 
men of the Netherlands caught from their conquest of the 
sea, the men of the southern valleys caught from their con- 
quest of the desert. '' Curbing the ocean and overflowing 
rivers with their dikes," says one of the closest students of 
Dutch history, '' they came to love the soil, their own cre- 
ation, and to till it with patient, almost tender care." So 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

they became the fathers of scientific farming in Europe. 
They wrought a marvellous revolution in the methods 
of cultivating the soil. " When Catherine of Aragon 
wished for a salad she was compelled to send for it 
across the Channel by a special messenger." The civ- 
ilization founded upon this wonderful agriculture main- 
tained its high character through the whole range of 
their economic life. The habits of skilful industry 
which grew from the intensely cultivated soil conferred 
the same prosperity when adapted to the workshop and 
the store. The thread of co-operation spun from their 
common labor on the dikes ran through the entire in- 
dustrial fabric of the crowded little nation. The influ- 
ence of neighborly association involved in the conditions 
of existence on farms of petty size colored and shaped 
their social life. As it was in Holland, so it is in south- 
ern California. 

The men of the southern valleys made the small-farm 
unit supreme. With marvellous patience and intelli- 
gence they worked out the highest methods of watering 
and tilling the soil known to the world. Tempering 
their speculative instincts with love of home, they de- 
veloped towns and surroundings of rare beauty and com- 
fort, and made them centres of high social and intellect- 
ual life. To compare these conditions with those which 
prevail in the great wheat- and cattle-ranches of the 
North, where labor is mostly servile, and where beauty 
has never laid its hand upon the home or dooryard, is 
like comparing Ilolland to Paraguay. Although the 
South has by no means escaped the evils of the single 
crop, it has vindicated irrigation and the small farm, and 
the extraordinary social possibilities inherent in both. 

93 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

These are the valuable lessons which may be set against 
the failures and disappointments of the last two dec- 
ades. 

In the stormy and heroic days of the gold epoch, of the 
Bear Flag, of the American conquest, and of the vigi- 
lance committees, southern California played a small 
part. Its past is the dreamy memory of old mission 
days, of peaceful shepherds, of great haciendas, of a land 
dominated by Spanish folk and speech. The land was a 
desert of sage-brush and cactus, in which a few scattered 
mission gardens made charming oases. Along moist 
river-bottoms there were sometimes fields and gardens, 
though not of the highest type. On the uplands light 
crops of wheat and barley were occasionally harvested, if 
spring rains happened to be fairly generous. But it was, 
apparently, a country which offered nothing to the 
stranger save climate and scenery. To this barren place 
came irrigation and the Anglo-Saxon, bringing a new 
era in their train. 

The evolution of southern California may be studied 
in the experience of two representative colonies. These 
are Anaheim and Riverside. Both were undertaken by 
comparatively poor men, and made important contribu- 
tions to the permanent prosperity of the district in which 
they settled. The success which they achieved and the 
methods by which they accomplished it colored and 
shaped the larger institutions which grew from these 
pioneer plantings. Anaheim owes its historical impor- 
tance to the fact that it was the mother colony, but it 
gains added interest as an example of the way in which 
a number of petty capitalists may combine their means 
in large enterprises. It is useful, too, as showing the 

94 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

ontcome of the settlement of city workingmen on agri- 
cnltural lands. Riverside represents a higher degree of 
social conditions, and is especially important and inter- 
esting as an example of the influence exerted by an en- 
tirely new element of population upon a country which 
had been neither developed nor appreciated by its natives 
and early settlers. A brief glance at the beginnings of 
these two communities is essential to any just compre- 
hension of the condition and tendencies of the southern 
California of to-day. 

I^Anaheim was projected nearly fifty years ago by Ger- 
mans from San Francisco. ^ They were all mechanics 
and small tradesmen, and each was possessed of a modest 
amount of savings. It was proposed that this capital 
should be united in a common fund and used for the 
purchase and improvement of a large tract of land. For 
this purpose a colony association was formed, the mem- 
bers paying one hundred dollars each and agreeing to 
make further contributions in monthly instalments. A 
committee was sent out to discover a good location and 
contract for its purchase. A body of land near the Santa 
Ana river, twenty-five miles southeast of Los Angeles, 
was chosen. A part of the colony was then detailed to 
build an irrigation canal, divide the land into twenty- 
acre farms, with a central village, and plant the whole 
tract in orchards and vineyards. In the mean time the 
main body of the association remained in San Francisco, 
earning money and sustaining the work in the field. 
When the colony had thus been completely prepared for 
occupancy, the settlers came with their families, build- 
ing their houses in the village and assigning the farms 
to individuals by drawing lots. In order to make this di- 

95 



TUE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

vision equitable, those who obtained the choicest proi^erty 
paid a premium, which was divided among those to whom 
the poorer places had fallen. Most of the colonists devoted 
themselves exclusively to agriculture, but enough opened 
small shops and worked at their trades as blacksmiths, 
carpenters, painters, shoemakers, and tailors, to meet 
the needs of the community. With the division of the 
land the association settled its accounts, and only the ir- 
rigation canal remained public property. Co-operation 
had served an excellent purpose, however, in enabling 
the people to obtain their land at first cost, and to have 
it improved skilfully and economically in advance of 
their coming. 

Beyond the hope of dwelling beneath their own roofs 
and working for themselves, the founders of Analieim 
had brought no special ideal to the southern valley. 
They were people of common tastes, well content with 
simple prosperity and comfort. The community was 
thoroughly successful. It is also possible to record an 
almost uniform story of individual ease of life for the 
settlers. While a few became discouraged and sold out 
to their neighbors, much the greater number remained 
and became comfortably Avell off, while a few rose to 
wealth. They had come to the colony from the employ- 
ments of city life, yet readily adapted themselves to the 
work of tilling the soil of their small farms. But the 
(true imjDortance of Anaheim was seen in the impulse 
which it gave to a new form of development in southern 
California. It had been a region of great ranches, 
where live-stock and grain held almost complete sway. 
Anaheim jDointed the way to the subdivision of large es- 
tates and the intensive cultivation of the soil with the 

96 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

aid of irrigation. This demonstratiou was destined to 
Avork a revolution in the character of the people and 
country.^ 

The Eiverside Colony, perhaps the most widely cele- 
brated of any of these communities, is a better example 
of the colonial life of California. In a truer sense than 
Anaheim, it is a product of irrigation, and it illustrates 
more fully than the mother colony the social possibili- 
ties inherent in this form of agriculture. Its history 
reveals a curious struggle between the forces of co-op- 
eration and of private enterprise, in the course of which 
both lent much strength to the colony and exerted a 
marked influence upon its fortunes. Like most of the 
pioneer settlements. Riverside was the dream of com- 
paratively poor men who sought, in the fresh opportuni- 
ties of a new country, better conditions for themselves 
and their children. The enterprise originated with 
Judge North, of Knoxville, Tennessee. His prospectus 
was issued from that place in the spring of 1870, and 
evoked a large response from many different States. In 
this prospectus the founder did not undertake to out- 
line a social organization with any detail. 

"Appreciating the advantages of associative settle- 
ment," ran the circular, " we aim to secure at least one 
hundred good families who can invest one thousand 
dollars each in the purchase of land ; while at the same 
time we invite all good, industrious people to join us who 
can, by investing a smaller amount, contribute in any 
degree to the general prosperity." The advantage of 
co-operative over individual settlement was rather for- 
cibly expressed: "Experience in the West has demon- 
strated that one hundred dollars invested in a colony 
o 97 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

is worth one thousand dollars invested in an isolated lo- 
cality." That the projectors had formed a very decided 
opinion as to the most favorable location is evident in 
the following: "We do not expect to buy as much land 
for the same money in southern California as we could 
obtain in parts of Colorado or Wyoming; but we ex- 
pect it to be worth more in proportion to cost than any 
other land we could purchase within the United States. 
It will cost something more to get to California than it 
would to reach the States this side of the mountains, 
but we are very confident that the suj^erior advantages 
of soil and climate will compensate us many times over 
for this increased expense." 

His circular had attracted the attention of a few men 
of considerable means,, and with these Judge North 
set out for California to select the site of the under- 
taking. With the rare intuition which eastern men 
have frequently displayed in going to the West, the new- 
comers selected a location which seemed quite preposter- 
ous to the natives of the country. Planning the most 
ideal development which had thus far been attemj^ted, 
they deliberately bought lands which had formerly been as- 
sessed at a valuation of seventy-five cents an acre. These 
lands then constituted a sheep pasture of inferior sort. 
They were similar to the stretch of desert which the 
transcontinental traveller sees in passing through Ari- 
zona. After the winter rains they bore a short-lived 
crop of wild flowers, but during most of the year they 
offered nothing more attractive than sage-brush and 
mesquite. The Mexican Avho owned them had not suffi- 
cient imagination to perceive how the new proprietors 
could realize a profit upon the modest sum of two dol- 

98 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

lars and a half an acre, for which he gladly sold them. 
But Judge North and his friends had two well-defiued 
ideas in their brains. One was irrigation ; the other, 
oranges. To the natives the first seemed impracticable, 
because of the expense; and the other ridiculous, be- 
cause no one had ever raised oranges there upon a com- 
mercial scale. 

The Santa Ana river rises in the Sierra Madre moun- 
tains, drawing its volume from a multitude of springs 
and canyon streams. It flows southwesterly for a dis- 
tance of seventy miles, where it empties into the ocean. 
Riverside is about twenty miles from the source of the 
stream, and lies on the bluffs along its eastern bank. 
The conditions did not present such opportunities for 
the cheap and easy diversion of the waters as the Mor- 
mon pioneers found in Utah. In later years, as the de- 
mand for irrigation grew constantly larger and more 
insistent, it became necessary to resort to the very high- 
est type of works for the distribution of water, and even 
the earliest canal required a cash outlay of fifty thou- 
sand dollars. Fortunately the capital was available, and 
thus the work of development went forward without fal- 
tering. /''The original canal was completed in the spring 
of 1871.^ / 

The enterprise had resolved itself into a private stock 
company, owning both the land and the water. The 
land was now sold to the colonists for twenty-five dollars 
an acre. This included the right to purchase a certain 
amount of water, for which there was an extra charge in 
the form of an annual rental. At the beginning this 
amounted to about one dollar an acre, but it rose with 
the demand for water, and the need of costly improve- 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ments in the system, nntil it readied an annual charge 
of ten dollars an acre. 

rf*In the experience of Riverside we may see the com- 
mercial romance of irrigation in its most striking form. 
The original sheep pasture, assessed at seventy-five cents 
an acre, sold readily at twenty-five dollars an acre when 
irrigation facilities had been supplied. While this re- 
presented a handsome j)rofit to the original investors, 
it was extremely moderate compared with the returns 
which the second purchasers realized. A few years 
later the unimproved lands sold for prices ranging from 
three hundred to five hundred dollars per acre. The 
improved orange orchards, which had been evolved from 
the sheep pasture, were valued, and actually sold, at 
one thousand to two thousand dollars per acre. There 
have been years when the best of them earned a profit of 
fifty per cent, on the higher figure.) 

Riverside was destined to win its chief celebrity as the 
pioneer orange colony. Its founders had based their 
faith in the possibilities of this industry on what they 
had seen in the gardens of old missions. 

They did not hesitate to plant their lands largely with 
citrus fruits in the face of many predictions of disaster. 
The new culture prospered from the start, but made se- 
vere demands upon the patience and intelligence of the 
settlers. During the same years in which the Greeley 
colonists were working out, by means of experiment and 
painful experience, the solution of agricultural problems 
for Colorado, the Riverside colonists were performing 
precisely the same service for southern California. The 
skill and the enterprise which the one people applied to 
potatoes, the other applied to oranges, with the same 

100 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

high results. The Riverside colonists not only exhanst- 
ed their own sources of information on the subject of 
citrus culture, but induced the State Department at 
Washington to make its consuls in semi-tropical coun- 
tries their agents. In this way they were enabled to learn 
all that foreign horticulturists knew about the business. 
(^They made constant progress in improving the standard 
of their fruit, their most marked triumph in this direction 
being the production of the Washington navel, or seedless, 
orange.) Their orchards represented all the choicest 
varieties, which were cultivated with the highest skill. 
The original colony tract of two thousand acres has been 
gradually extended until it includes ten thousand. The 
shipment of oranges has risen to six thousand carloads 
annually, realizing about three million dollars. 

The projector of Riverside had framed his prospectus 
on the lines of co-operative effort. We have seen that 
the enterprise speedily became private and speculative in 
character. This result was mostly due to the necessity 
of using large caj)ital for the initial development, and to 
the fact that the colony included a group of individuals 
who possessed considerable means. Possibly the same 
result might have occurred in Utah if the Mormon pio- 
neers had not enjoyed a fortunate equality in the matter 
of poverty. In Utah there was no capital except labor 
and brains, and these admitted of no other form of en- 
terprise than pure co-operation. 

The speculative instinct which took possession of River- 
side and ran a mad race through southern California, ac- 
complished much good, as well as much evil. And in the 
end the pioneer orange colony returned very closely to 
the original ideal of its founder. The principal irriga- 

101 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

tion system became in time the property of the people, 
and the water-rights were inseparably associated with the 
land. The orange-growers also found it necessary to seek 
refuge from the rapacity of the commission system in the 
adoption of co-operation for the sale of their product. 
Hence, in the two most vital features of their industry 
— the watering of their lands and the handling of their 
crops — Riverside is fully realizing to-day the hopes in 
Avhich it was originally conceived. On the side of its 
social life it has never departed from its first ideal, and 
it is in this aspect that it may be studied to the best ad- 
vantage. 

The homes and avenues of this colony, which have 
been evolved from an inferior sheep pasture in less than 
a generation, are among the most beautiful in the world. 
In considering their widely celebrated charms, it should 
never be forgotten that these are the homes and sur- 
roundings of average people, and that they earn their 
living by tilling the soil. Making due allowance for cli- 
matic difEerences, there are equally beautiful residence 
districts in the suburbs of great eastern cities ; but these 
belong to people who enjoy a degree of prosperity much 
above the average — to the small minority who are rich, 
or at least unusually well-to-do. They are not farmers, 
but business or professional men who have risen above 
the general level of society. At Riverside, on the other 
hand, at least ninety per cent, of the total population 
live in homes which front on beautiful boulevards, pre- 
senting to the passer an almost unbroken view of well- 
kept lawns, opulent flower-beds, and delicate shrubbery. 
Newspaper carriers canter through these streets deliver- 
ing the local morning and evening dailies. Though this 

103 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

is a farming population, the homes are so close together 
that the people enjoy the convenience of free postal de- 
livery. They fill their bath-tubs with water piped 
through the streets. They light their homes with elec- 
tricity. In the centre of the colony they have fine stores, 
churches, hotels, and public halls. Their schools are of 
the highest standard, and are housed in buildings the 
beauty and convenience of which bespeak the good pub- 
lic taste. A well-patronized institution is the club-house 
and its reading-room. There is but a single saloon, and 
it is considered decidedly disrei3utable to frequent it. 

The first result of the early colonies was to give a tre- 
mendous impetus to the settlement and development 
of southern California. The fruits of this new impulse 
are seen in the scores of charming communities which 
stretch eastward to the margin of the Colorado desert 
and southward to the border of Mexico. Redlands, On- 
tario, and Pomona are typical examples. The impres- 
sive city of Los Angeles, which grows alike in good times 
and in bad, is another product of the movement which 
traces back to the humble beginnings of these pioneer 
settlements established by a superior class of eastern 
emigrants. High land values and costly irrigation works 
have naturally resulted. But these are only the super- 
ficial evidences of economic forces which lie deeper, and 
which should be noted as the peculiar product of the 
colonial life of southern California. 

The germ of Riverside, and of the civilization which 
it inaugurated in the San Bernardino Valley, is the small 
farm made possible by irrigation. This is alone respon- 
sible for the character of industrial and social institu- 
tions and of the people who sustain them. "Where farms 

103 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

are very small — iu Kiverside they are from five to ten 
acres in size — they necessarily belong to the many. This 
means a class of small landed proprietors at the base of 
society. The condition is one which forbids the exist- 
ence of a mass of servile labor like that which lives npon 
the cotton plantations of the South, and, to a greater or 
less extent, upon large farms everywhere, including the 
greater part of California itself. On a small farm the 
proprietary family does most of the work. Hence the 
main part of the population in such districts as Riverside 
is independent and self-employing. 

The people of southern California are plainly moving 
along the line which leads to public ownership of j)ublic 
utilities and co-operative management of commercial 
affairs. But with them the movement is an economic 
growth rather than a political agitation. It is the logi- 
cal outcome of their environment and necessities. A 
great body of producers and proprietors of the soil, they 
formerly stood between private irrigation systems, sup- 
plying the life-current of their fields, and private com- 
mission houses, furnishing the only outlet for their prod- 
ucts. The condition was an intolerable one, since it made 
them utterly dependent upon agencies beyond their con- 
trol. These instrumentalities the people are rapidly 
taking into their own hands, and it is inconceivable that 
they can ever again pass into private control. It is prob- 
able that California has seen almost the last of the at- 
tempts to establish the policy of private ownership of irri- 
gation works, the most vital of all public utilities in arid 
regions. The system of co-operative fruit exchanges is 
carried forward by the same impulse. Already it handles 
more than half the enormous product. The producers 

104 



EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

have their own packiug-honses, make cash advances to 
their members, and send their agents to represent them 
in distant markets. 

It is pleasant to note that beantiful homes and high 
average prosperity have not spoiled the democratic sim- 
plicity of these communities. After the adjournment of 
the International Irrigation Congress at Los Angeles in 
1893, its members enjoyed the hospitalities of many of 
the charming colonies in the neighborhood. In his re- 
marks at a banquet tendered the party by the people of 
Santa Ana, Seuor de Ybarrola, the representative of 
Mexico, paid a handsome compliment to the ladies who 
had waited upon the table. Afterwards one of the dis- 
tinguished representatives of France remarked his sur- 
prise at hearing a public compliment to "the servants." 

''What!" exclaimed Senor de Ybarrola, "did you 
think they were servants ? Why, those were the leading 
ladies of Santa Ana." 

" Do you mean to tell me," the French delegate de- 
manded, in amazement, " that the leading ladies of Santa 
Ana put on aprons to serve strangers ?" 

"Certainly," the Mexican replied ; "for in this coun- 
try service is a title to respect." 

The incident illustrates at once the hospitality and the 
equality which are characteristic of the social life of 
southern California. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAIN'S 

The semi-arid portion of the Great Plains constitutes 
a distinct division of the irrigation empire. Its history 
and its problems are peculiarly its own. During the last 
half century it has lived through three stirring and ro- 
mantic epochs and entered upon a fourth. This last is 
one of absorbing human interest, and will doubtless 
shape the permanent civilization of the region. 

When Francis Parkman and the Mormon pioneers tra- 
versed the country, late in the forties, it swarmed with 
herds of buifalo and tribes of hostile Indians. It was the 
era of savagery, broken only by the presence of a few 
frontier posts, which served as the occasional refuge of 
adventurers and hunters. 

Almost miraculously the buffalo disappeared, and the 
red men retreated before the white wave which over- 
flowed the western bank of the Mississippi and began 
gradually to people the eastern margin of the plains. 
Then the savagery of th-? desert suddenly gave way to 
the semi-barbarism of an epoch of cattle-kings and cow- 
boys. 

Just as the Indian and the trapper had surrendered to 
the cowboy and his herds, so the latter in their turn re- 
ceded and largely disappeared before another element 

106 



THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 

which now swiftly arose in the life of tlie Great Plains. 
The third era of American colonization, noted in a pre- 
vious chapter, was yet at the stage of flood-tide. New 
railroads were pushing their iron highways westward 
across the prairie. Such entrcjJots as Chicago, St. Paul, 
Omaha, and Kansas City were crowded with hopeful im- 
migrants whose appetite for government land had been 
whetted by the stories of prosperity with which the news- 
papers teemed. Horace Greeley^s famous injunction, 
*' Go west, young man," still rang in the ears of am- 
bitious youth and homeless middle-age. Land agents 
urged on the multitudes with a zeal born of the com- 
missions on which it fed. 

In the enthusiasm of the hour no one gave heed to the 
few croakers who hinted that there was somewhere a 
mysterious boundary-line beyond which all efforts at set- 
tlement must be disastrous. There was a theory that 
rainfall moved westward with poijulation, and that the 
cultivation of the land wrought changes in climatic con- 
ditions. Under these circumstances it was not strange 
that the home-seeking hosts crossed the unknown boun- 
dary into the region of scant rainfall, and learned in hard- 
ship and bitterness the lessons which a more cautious and 
far-seeing government would have comprehended and 
taught to its children. 

In the absence of such scientific determination of the 
conditions of the country, tens of thousands expended all 
their money and the most precious years of their lives 
in discovering what could not be done in the semi-arid 
region. The crushing and pathetic truth that nature 
had denied sufficient rainfall for the production of crops 
in a region where a multitude of people had made their 

107 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

homes dawned slowly upon the public mind, and the con- 
clusion was stubbornly resisted. 

Between the acknowledgment of this fact and the be- 
ginning of practical efforts looking to the use of irri- 
gation, there was a brief but exciting intermediate stage 
in which high hopes were built upon the j)ossibility of 
precipitating rain by artificial means. An Australian 
genius suddenly appeared with a mysterious prescription 
warranted to assemble clouds in a clear sky and compel 
them to weep in the shape of copious showers. The end 
of this undertaking was the failure of the experiment 
and the suicide of the inventor. One of the railways dis- 
covered another wizard with another prescription, and 
hauled his special car over the entire length of its line, 
promising showers on regular schedule time. Even the 
Agricultural Department at Washington expended several 
thousand dollars in experiments in this direction. In 
this case, however, there was no mystery about the method 
adopted. It was the use of powerful exjplosives to be 
discharged at a high elevation. As nobody denied that 
heavy showers frequently followed great battles, and that 
it generally rained on the night of the Fourth of July, 
there were high hopes for the success of this undertaking, 
which occurred on an elaborate scale in Texas. Secre- 
tary Rusk described the preparations in detail, and sum- 
marized the outcome in the sententious remark : " The 
result was — a loud noise !" The theory exploded with 
the dynamite and disappeared from the minds of men 
with the last reverberation on the Texas prairies. 

The mysterious line which divides the region of fairly 
reliable rainfall from the land of sunshine has been dis- 
covered at last and generally accepted. This, as stated 

108 



THE REVOLUTION ON TUE PLAINS 

before, is the ninety-seventh meridian west from Green- 
wich. It divides the United States almost exactly into 
halves, running through the middle of North Dakota, 
South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and 
Texas. The vast territory lying between this meridian 
and the foouhills of the Rockies, bounded on the north 
by Canada and on the south by Mexico, is the semi-arid 
region of the Great Plains. Over all this vast district 
the tide of settlement had flowed and ebbed again, as we 
have seen. It now awaits the full development of the 
fourth epoch in its eventful and romantic history. The 
character and extent of this development is governed by 
the nature of the water supply, which differs materially 
in the several States. 

The utility of irrigation on the plains was revealed in 
a curious way. In Finney county, near the western bor- 
der of Kansas, thousands of acres were planted to wheat 
in the summer of 1878, and it seemed the sanest of proj- 
ects to build a grist-mill to grind the crop. This was 
undertaken near the Arkansas river by enterprising 
merchants in the neighboring community of Garden 
City, but the new institution began and ended with a 
mill-race. Before the building and machinery were re- 
quired, the wheat hud surrendered to dry air and hot 
winds. Not an acre of the crop was harvested. And 
yet the blighted seed was destined to bear another and 
far more fateful crop and the forgotten mill-race on the 
banks of the Arkansas to grind a grist that would prove 
historic. 

A few settlers remained to rake amid the ashes of 
their ruined hopes. Among them was a man who had 
learned the methods of irrigation while living in Cali- 

109 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

fornia and Colorado. It happened that his land ad- 
joined the abandoned mill-race, and he readily obtained 
the right to turn the water npon a part of his farm. 
The result, though not surprising to the practised irri- 
gator, was a revelation to his thoroughly disheartened 
neighbors. The soil which produced nothing in the 
previous summer responded to the new method of culti- 
vation with enormous crops of all varieties of products. 
In quality they surpassed anything previously grown in 
that region. As these facts became known a new hope 
arose, like a star in the night, against the dark back- 
ground of past discoui-agements. The Garden City 
" experiment " became the Mecca of students of irrigation 
throughout the wide region devastated by the drought. 
The ruined crop of the previous year and the useless 
mill-race gave birth to an influence which in fifteen 
years has assumed far-reaching proportions. 

Kansas is the mother of irrigation on the plains. When 
the people heard of the miracle wrought by the waters 
of the abandoned mill-race their optimism instantly fore- 
told a better civilization than they had dreamed of. 
Irrigation began here with canal-building in the valley 
of the Arkansas river. For a time the work was prose- 
cuted with remarkable vigor. As early as 1890 over 
four hundred miles of large canals had been built, at a 
cost of nearly three million dollars. But the industry 
came suddenly face to face with an unexpected and 
almost fatal obstacle. 

The Arkansas river rises in the mountains of Colo- 
rado and waters a broad and fertile valley before cross- 
ing the boundary into Kansas. In the upper State 
enterprise was busy with the diversion of its waters. 

110 



THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 

In the absence of any regulation of interstate streams 
by national antliority, the Colorado irrigators claimed 
the right to take the last drop of water for their own 
canals. This they proceeded to do during the growing 
season, leaving the canals of western Kansas as dry as 
its prairies. The investment of an English company in 
extensive works costing more than a million dollars was 
practically destroyed by this turn of affairs. There were 
many similar losses of less magnitude. It was at this 
stage that the lamented humorist ''Bill Nye" remarked 
of some of the western rivers that " they are a mile wide 
and an inch thick — they have a large circulation, but 
very little influence." 

When the Kansas irrigators found themselves deprived 
of their surface supplies they sought the underflow, and 
in the process of finding and utilizing it developed an 
entirely unique and very promising mode of irrigation. 

The new experiment was first made at Garden City, 
within sight of the historic mill-race. It was found that 
in the Arkansas Valley water could be obtained by shal- 
low wells ranging in depth from eight to twenty feet. 
This is raised by hundreds of wind-mills into hundreds 
of small reservoirs constructed at the highest point of 
each farm. The uniform eastward slope of the plains is 
seven feet to the mile. The indefatigable Kansas wind 
keeps the mills in active operation, and the reservoirs 
are always full of water, which is drawn off as it is re- 
quired for purposes of irrigation. These small indi- 
vidual pumping-plants have certain advantages over the 
canal systems which prevail elsewhere. The irrigator 
has no entangling alliances with companies or co-oper- 
ative associations, and is able to manage the water supply 

111 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

without deferring to the convenience of others, or yield- 
ing obedience to rules and regulations essential to the 
orderly administration of systems which supply large 
numbers of consumers. The original cost of such a 
plant, exclusive of the farmer's own labor in construct- 
ing his reservoirs and ditches, is two hundred dollars, 
and the plant suffices for ten acres. The farmer thus 
pays twenty dollars per acre (about double the average 
price paid to canal systems in this region) for a per- 
petual guaranty of sufficient "rain" to produce bounti- 
ful crops ; but to this cost must be added two dollars per 
acre as the annual price of maintaining the system. 

Farming under these conditions is limited to small 
areas, and intensive methods of cultivation become im- 
perative. The result has been the evolution of a multi- 
tude of five-, ten-, and twenty-acre farms, each sur- 
rounded by its tall fringe of protecting cottonwoods, 
which inclose grounds variously planted to orchard, 
field, and garden. Perhaps these methods present a 
closer parallel to European agriculture than anything 
else found in tliis country, while the numerous wind- 
mills suggest comparison with Holland. Nowhere are 
there sharper contrasts than that which is presented by 
these green and fruitful farms, gleaming like islands of 
verdure upon the brown bosom of the far-stretching 
plains, which have been seared by the hot breath of rain- 
less winds. 

The uses of the artificial reservoirs are not limited to 
irrigation; they are usually stocked with fish, which 
multiply with surprising rapidity and enable the farmer 
to include this item of home produce in his bill of fare 
every day in the year. These fish are very tame, and in 

112 



THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 

some cases actually trained to respond to the ringing 
of the dinner-bell, coming in scurrying shoals to fight 
for crumbs of bread thrown upon the water. (This fish 
story is a true one.) The reservoirs also yield a profit- 
able crop of ice in the winter. When we compare the 
hardships and bitterness of this locality but a few years 
since with the comfort and abundance which the infin- 
itely smaller farms yield to-day, we behold anew the civ- 
ilizing power of irrigation. The Starvation Belt has be- 
come a Land of Plenty. 

The centre and inspiration of these developments is 
Garden City, capital of Finney county. What Greeley 
was to Colorado and Riverside to southern California, 
this little town has been to western Kansas. Perhaps 
no other small place on the plains suffered a more vio- 
lent attack of " boom" than Garden City in the feverish 
times of the last decade. Certainly none has held with 
more tenacity to its confidence in the final outcome of 
the country or contributed more to the early vindica- 
tion of its faith. 

It is difficult to estimate the reasonable possibilities 
of windmill irrigation in Kansas. There are enthusiasts 
who insist that the industry will be extended to nearly 
every acre, uplands as well as valleys. There are pessi- 
mists who assert that the amount of land reclaimable by 
such means is relatively very small. Of this subject the 
conservative hydrographer of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey, Mr. Frederick Haynes Newell, speaks as 
follows : 

"The existence of the subsurface waters of the river 
valleys of western Kansas has long been known. Like 
every other natural resource, its importance, at one time 
H 113 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

little recognized, has been seized upon by the so-called 
''boomers" and exaggerated to the extent of creating 
distrust and depreciation. It is, however, one of the 
most important of the natural advantages of the State, 
and one upon which the foundations of prosperity must 
be carefnlly laid. By a thorough employment of the 
underground waters, with the best methods, much of 
the vacant land of the State will be utilized for agricult- 
ure, and the remainder can become a source of revenue, 
indirectly at least. Taking the Arkansas Valley as best 
illustrating these conditions, the general statement may 
be made that water can be had everywhere within the 
valley at moderate depths, and in quantities such as to 
be inexhaustible to ordinary pumping machinery if prop- 
erly installed." 

Referring to the very much larger territory lying out- 
side of the river valleys, the same authority says: 

*' In the portions of western and central Kansas where 
wells cannot be obtained at moderate depth, it will prob- 
ably be practicable to store considerable volumes of water 
by closing the outlets of natural depressions. Favorable 
localities, although somewhat rare, can be found in nearly 
every county, and by the proper construction of substan- 
tial earth-dams considerable volumes of water can be 
held for use upon the lower lands. In one instance at 
least water thus stored has been pumped for use upon 
an orchard, and the success attained in this way should 
induce others to try similar devices." 

The drought of 1890 made Nebraska one of the im- 
portant irrigation States of the West. Canals had been 
built on the North Platte river near the Wyoming 
boundary, several years earlier, but the irrigation indus- 

114 



TUE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 

try had won no general recognition. Thousands of 
farmers were persisting in the delusive hope of rainfall 
farming, and public sentiment was distinctly opposed to 
those who sought to include Nebraska in the arid re- 
gion. 

All this was changed by the events of 1890. In that 
year crops were ruined by dry weather and hot winds 
throughout a large part of the State, and the people in 
the western counties generally acknowledged that it was 
useless to longer persist in the effort to cultivate the 
soil without artificial moisture. Strangely enough, they 
seemed to draw a new inspiration from their blighted 
fields. Irrigation conventions were held at many county 
seats. The study of water resources, of methods and 
laws essential to their utilization, became earnest and 
general. The popular agitation rapidly crystallized into 
a permanent and organized movement which has gath- 
ered strength with each passing year. Comprehensive 
laws were enacted by the legislature and the office of 
State Engineer created. Meanwhile, large amounts of 
private capital were invested, many canals constructed, 
and the despised western counties began to rise in pub- 
lic esteem. 

It is now clearly apparent that the very lands which 
refused to yield a return for the industry of the first set- 
tlers will sustain the densest population in the future 
and give the most absolute assurance of permanent pros- 
perity. Already the time has come when a State irriga- 
tion fair can be held in western Nebraska and make a 
striking exhibition of results, and when a commonwealth 
which ten years ago resented as a libel the intimation 
that its rainfall was deficient, can proudly claim to rank 

115 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

among the greatest of irrigation States. The transforma- 
tion which has occurred in public opinion is no less 
striking than that of the agricultural industry itself. 

The State is more fortunate than some of its neighbors 
in the character and extent of its water supplies. Over 
its western boundary the North Platte pours a perennial 
stream of considerable volume, which feeds a number of 
large canals. The surface flow of the South Platte 
is mostly absorbed in Colorado, but when the two forks 
are united in Lincoln county they make a river of re- 
spectable proportions, which flows through the heart of 
the State and furnishes water both from its surface flow 
and from its gravel bed. The Loup river further increases 
the irrigation facilities in the central counties. In the 
southwestern part of the State the Republican and its 
tributaries supply a number of quite extensive irrigation 
systems. Along the northwestern boundary the Niobra- 
ra, a noble stream, is beginning to be utilized. 

The conformation of the land in western Nebraska 
also offers more favorable opportunities for the storage 
of flood waters than are found in most of the prairie 
States. The possibility of irrigation from wells by means 
of pumps driven by windmills and by steam and gaso- 
line engines, are also being thoroughly tested, with hope- 
ful results. The experts of the Geological Survey report 
that even away from the river valleys, where the depth 
to water is considerable, small farms can be irrigated by 
tliis means at most points. This conservative authority es- 
timates that fully one million and a half of acres can be 
irrigated in western Nebraska. Local enthusiasts put 
the amount very much higher, but even the former fig- 
ure represents a reclaimed area three times greater than 

116 



THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 

that on which the wonderful agricultural industry of 
Utah has been developed. 

The Dakotas are comparatively well watered by surface 
streams, but they flow in deep channels, and the uniform 
slope of the land to the eastward is only about one foot 
to the mile. Under these conditions it is not practicable 
to divert the flow by gi'avity canals, though it is some- 
times done with the aid of pumping machinery. But 
the Dakotas rejoice in the possession of great artesian 
basins and of some of the largest flowing wells in the 
world. Many of them are one thousand feet in depth, 
and some of tliem furnish the remarkable flow of four 
thousand gallons per minute. Over sixteen hundred 
artesian wells were reported in these two States as early 
as 1891, and the number has constantlv increased. The 
irrigation sentiment has been well organized and has re- 
sulted in the provision of progressive legislation. 

Texas was also a severe sufferer from drought through- 
out the western part of its vast territory. The greater 
portion of it is well watered by rivers, by large perennial 
springs, and by artesian wells second only to those of 
Dakota. Here the people have also responded with high 
public spirit to the appeals of the irrigation champions, 
and the new era in the industrial life of the State is well 
under Avay. 

The actual amount of land that may be reclaimed and 
cultivated in the semi-arid region furnishes no measure 
of the value of irrigation to tliis vast district. By en- 
abling thousands to engage in farming, irrigation has 
made it possible to use the surrounding plains as the 
pasture for great numbers of beef cattle. In many in- 
stances small herds are owned by the farmers themselves, 

117 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

but to a large extent their crops are bought by those 
whose sole business is cattle-raising. Thus all the re- 
sources of the region are brought into use, and a wonder- 
ful prosperity has followed as the logical result. 

From Canada to Mexico the revolution on the Great 
Plains is now in full tide. It is the most dramatic page 
in the history of American irrigation. It has saved an 
enormous district from lapsing into a condition of semi- 
barbarism. It has not only made human life secure, but 
revolutionized the industrial and social economy of the 
locality. 

To a considerable extent it has replaced the quarter- 
section with the small farm and the single crop with 
diversified cultivation. It has transformed the specu- 
lative instincts of the people into a spirit of sober in- 
dustrialism. It has raised the standard of living and 
improved the character of homes. It has planted the 
rose-bush and the pansies where only the sunflower cast 
its shadows, and it has twined the ivy and the honeysuckle 
over doors which formerly knew not the touch of beauty. 
It has made neighbors and society where once there were 
loneliness and heart-hunger. It has broken the chains 
of hopeless mortgages and crowned industry with inde- 
pendence. 



UNDEVELOPED AMERICA 

' ' Mighty as has been our past, our resources have j ust been touched 
upon, and there is wealth beyond the Mississippi which, in the not 
distant future, will astonish even the dwellers on the shores of Lake 
Michigan. 

"From the time my eyes first rested on the great uncultivated 
plains which lie between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, my 
wakening dreams have been filled with visions of the incalculable 
wealth which the touch of living water will bring to life from those 
voiceless deserts. There wealth only can produce wealth, and man, 
singly and alone, might as well try to subdue the Himalayas as to 
cope with these wastes ; but the hand of united and associated man 
is already reaching forth to grasp the great results. 

"The same power which wastes millions on the Mississippi can 
be utilized to make the desert blossom with the homes of men, for 
whom and for all of us the now blighted soil will bring forth the 
fruits of the Garden of Eden." — Hon. Thomas B. Reed, in a 
speech at Pittsburg, 1894. 



CHAPTER I 

THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

California is widely celebrated, but little known. Its 
unique climate and productions, and the dramatic inci- 
dents of its early history, have been deeply impressed 
upon the popular imagination wherever the name of the 
Rei^ublic is si^oken. These circumstances have given it 
rank among the most famous of American States ; yet its 
problems and its future are inscrutable enigmas to all 
who have not studied the subject at close range, and to 
many who have. The anomaly that one of the States 
most talked of should be one of the least understood is 
not difficult to explain. 

In the first place, California is known not by what 
millions of people have seen, but by what millions have 
read. Europe is better known by contact to Americans 
than California. A prominent American orator recently 
" discovered " California, and filled the newspapers with 
the interesting and suggestive impressions it had made 
upon his mind. He had been to Europe twenty times, and 
to the Pacific coast once, which is once of tener than many 
other distinguished travellers of the eastern seaboard. 

Still further, the Anglo-Saxon race is dealing with new 
conditions in California. Coming from dense forests, 
from a land of heavy rainfall, and from a temperate 

121 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

climate where winters are long and stern, it settled in 
treeless deserts, in a land of slight and peculiar rainfall, 
and under a sky that never knows the winter. 

Finally, California is in its infancy, having recently 
celebrated its fifty-fifth birthday as an American com- 
monwealth. Born in a paroxysm of speculation — one of 
the wildest the world has seen — it has outlived a trying 
experience of lesser economic epilepsy, and come to the 
threshold of its true career strengthened and purified by 
the extraordinary process. In less than half a century 
several far-reaching changes have swept through the in- 
dustrial and social life of the State, swiftly altering the 
conditions of labor and of business. Even for those 
living in the midst of these events it has been difficult 
to read their significance and estimate their influence on 
the ultimate character of the place and people. 

What wonder, then, that to the outside world Cali- 
fornia has meantime appeared like a jumble of gold, 
palms, and oranges, of gilded millionaires and hopeless 
paupers, of enviable farmers living luxuriously on small 
sections of paradise, and of servile alien laborers herded 
in stifling tenements ? Such are the conflicting aspects 
of the Golden State to those who view it from afar. What 
are the facts ? 

The literature of California is prolific. Perhaps no 
other locality in th? United States has been so often writ- 
ten about. In dealing with a place which presents so 
many strange and fascinating features it is easy for praise 
to become extravagance. This is now so well understood 
that it is commonly thought that the words " Cali- 
f ornian " and " veracity " are seldom synonymous. But 
the truth is that visitors from abroad have contributed 

133 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

rather more than Calif ornians themselves to the popular 
impression of the State and its wonders. It is the fleet- 
ing tourist rather than the permanent resident who be- 
comes the more reckless partisan of the charming climate, 
the majestic scenery, and the vast resources which, to 
his exhilarated imagination, seem certain to burst into 
their full potentiality in the immediate future. 

Without doubt, the most influential books ever written 
about California were those of Mr. Charles Nordhofif. 
His California : for Health, Pleasure, and Residence 
(1873), and Northern California (1874), had a great 
vogue at the time of their publication, and for many years 
after. They are as fresh and readable to-day as when 
written, and it is easy to understand why they should 
have exercised so powerful an influence in making public 
opinion. Mr. Nordhoff should not be confounded with 
the superficial enthusiasts who study the country only 
from car-windows and the verandas of luxurious hotels. 
Addressing his books " to travellers and settlers, '' he evi- 
dently realized the grave responsibility of the undertak- 
ing, and made a conscientious effort to describe the 
situation faithfully and conservatively. To keen observa- 
tion, and a clear, vivid, descriptive style, he added a 
shrewd common-sense, which enabled him to divine, with 
striking accuracy, several important economic facts 
which the residents themselves overlooked or ignored. 
He went thoroughly over and into the country, accepting 
no facts at second-hand which it was possible for him to 
verify by personal investigation. 

Nevertheless, he wrote as a tourist-correspondent, and 
is first among those of that class who have given Cali- 
fornia the place it holds in the popular imagination. 

123 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Looking back now to his studies and the deductions he 
drew from them, it is interesting to note how conditions 
have changed in thirty years, and to what extent his 
words of advice require revision before they can be 
offered to the settler of to-day. 

When Mr. Nordhoil wrote his books cattle and cattle- 
men were just beginning sullenly to recede before the 
rising tide of agriculturists in the great San Joaquin 
Valley. He correctly foretold the first effects of the in- 
dustrial revolution that would follow, predicting that the 
railroad and the public lands, and, later, the old Spanish 
grants, would be divided among farmers ; that the cattle 
would be compelled to seek the mountains for free range, 
and would come into the valleys only to be fattened upon 
alfalfa and other crops. But he foresaw only the first 
effects of these changes, and the farmer who should pro- 
ceed upon his advice to-day would certainly fail to prosper. 

Mr. Nordhoff chamjiioned the cause of the small far- 
mer against the great landowner, but his idea of a small 
farmer is widely different from the present significance of 
the term. He saw in the San Joaquin " cheap farms for 
millions." These were to be acquired, either from the 
railroad or the government, in tracts ranging from one 
hundred and sixty to six hundred and forty acres. This 
was what he meant by "small farms," and they were 
small, indeed, compared with the great ranches of thou- 
sands or tens of thousands of acres. But they were 
still of quite imperial dimensions compared with the 
unit of ten, twenty, or thirty acres which is now consid- 
ered amply sufficient for the settler's needs. 

While Mr. Nordhoff recognized the advantage of irri- 
gation, he did not appreciate its actual importance, nor 

134 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

did he realize how largely it would increase the cost of 
laud and how seriously it would influence the entire 
economic character of the country. He held out the 
liope of a prosperous living for families of small means 
who should settle upon farms of one hundred and sixty 
acres and upwards in the San Joaquin Valley, and de- 
pend chiefly upon crops that could be grown without 
irrigation. If "the millions" had accepted this advice 
in the past, or should do so to-day, nothing but disaster 
could result. Except in a few localities, prosperous 
agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley without irriga- 
tion is impossible. The character of the country is such 
that large and costly canal systems are required to bring 
any considerable portion of it under water. When these 
were built it was no longer possible to acquire cheap 
land, and the size of the practicable farm unit had been 
reduced to about one-tenth of the amount Mr. Nord- 
hoff advised. These developments changed the situa- 
tion completely. 

The enthusiastic author was by no means blind to the 
possibilities of horticulture, nor did he fail to foresee 
that when this had been established it could be success- 
fully pursued on much smaller areas. But here also his 
advice is now quite obsolete, and must be revised before 
it can again be offered to the public. He left the im- 
pression that oranges could be grown throughout south- 
ern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Later ex- 
perience has eliminated the dream of orange orchards 
from a vast portion of these localities, but has demon- 
strated that the industry is practicable in some places 
where it was formerly supposed to be out of the ques- 
tion. While the orange -tree will grow and generally 

125 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

bear frnit throughont the lower valleys, the area in 
which it can successfully be cultivated for commercial 
purposes is rather severely restricted. To grow a few 
orange-trees within the shelter of the house, and to pro- 
duce sufl&cient fruit for home purposes, is one thing ; 
to grow thousands of acres of oranges fit for the market, 
and thus develop a genuine citrus district, is entirely 
different. There is a well-recognized thermal belt in 
the foothills of the Sierras, bordering the San Joaquin 
and Sacramento valleys, but the conditions of the coun- 
try as a whole, with reference to this subject, have 
turned out to be very different from what they were 
supposed to be when Mr. Nordhoff wrote his books. In 
southern California his predictions in regard to orange 
culture have been largely realized, but even there it has 
been discovered that the field is limited. 

The author was not unnaturally led into the error 
of saying that " the seasons are a little later in the 
North" than in the South. The contraiy is the case, 
strange as it may seem, for it is the northern fruit dis- 
tricts which send the earliest products to market. This 
is true of both deciduous and citrus fruits. In the case 
of the latter the difference is very striking, as the 
northern oranges are ready for the Thanksgiving mar- 
ket, while comparatively little of the southern crop is 
available for Christmas purposes. Both the raisin and 
the prune industries were beginning to assume import- 
ance in 1873. Mr. Nordhoff quoted raisins at " two dol- 
lars per box of twenty-five pounds," and added : " I judge 
from the testimony of different persons that at seven 
cents per pound raisins will pay the farmer very well." 
To-day they are quite content to obtain three cents. He 

126 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

quoted prunes as bringing from twenty to twenty-two 
cents at wholesale at San Francisco, "and even as high as 
thirty cents for best quality." Prunes now bring from 
three to eight cents, and pay well at four and a half. 
Figs were then selling at from five to ten cents per pound, 
and the author thought they would be very profitable. 
The result has proved that while figs bear most prolific 
crops they are not profitable, as Californians have not 
yet been able to cure and pack them successfully. There 
are exceptions to the rule, but this is true as a general 
statement, and the fig is not a profitable article of com- 
merce in California. In much the same way tobacco- 
culture failed and disappointed the hopes which had 
been built upon that industry. 

These are instances of many particulars in which even 
the most painstaking of works on California require re- 
vision in the light of experience. So, too, the public 
opinion which they helped to make must be revised. 
Mr. Nordhoff described California as it looked and as 
it seemed to promise in 1873. While his methods were 
conscientious, his tone was one of intense enthusiasm. 
His vision extended as far as any one's could do at that 
time. The fact is that at that stage of its history Cali- 
fornia had not begun to develop its real and enduring 
economic traits as it has done during the past few years. 
It had recently emerged from an era of wild speculation. 
It stood upon the verge of another, in which railroads 
and agriculture, rather than gold, were to be the prin- 
cipal factors. It is from the calm sea-level of these quiet 
days that the State may best take its bearings. Thus the 
time is ripe for a new study of what in many respects is 
the most wonderful of American States. 

127 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The great farmer of California is the successor of the 
gold-hunter. Both were speculators of the thoroughbred 
type ; both looked with contempt upon the matter of 
making a living, and dreamed only of making a fortune. 
Of homes and institutions they were neither architects 
nor builders, for they sought only to take the wealth 
from the soil and spend it elsewhere. The miner leaves 
nothing to commemorate the place where he gathered 
gold save crumbling hovels and empty tin cans. The 
five -thousand -acre wheat -farmer leaves no monument 
beyond fields of repulsive stubble and the shanties of 
his "hoboes." These social forces belong to barbarism 
rather than to civilization. 

Mr. Nordhoff clearly perceived these things, and not 
only urged the importance of smaller farms, but that 
farmers should be encouraged to diversify their products 
and become independent on their own places. But the 
conditions were yet too favorable for speculation. Wheat 
commanded more than one dollar per bushel. Of the 
new products, such as raisins, prunes, and oranges, the 
output was slight, and the prices consequently high. 
The result was inevitable. The owners of large farms 
sought to buy more land and increase the scale of their 
operations. The new settlers acquired as much land as 
they could, while the growing class of horticulturists plant- 
ed their property exclusively to the few kinds of trees or 
vines which seemed most profitable at that time. Writing 
of this subject Mr. T. S. Van Dyke says : " The general 
principle upon which all farming was done, from the high- 
est to the lowest, was very nearly this : Do nothing your- 
self that you can hire any one else to do, make no machin- 
ery at home, and raise nothing to eat that you can buy." 

128 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

The rise of horticnltnro brought no material change 
in these conditions. As with the miner and wheat- 
farmer, so with the fruit-grower the aim was to get rich 
quickly, and the method speculation. Certain districts 
were devoted exclusively to jorunes, others to wine grapes, 
others to raisins, and yet others to oranges. Fruit-land 
rose to almost fabulous prices, and was readily bought 
by those who had been taught to believe that they could 
realize profits ranging from one hundred to one thousand 
dollars per acre for certain crops. Exceptional instances 
justified this prediction, and everybody seemed to prefer 
to found expectations upon these instances rather than 
upon average returns. It is not difficult to understand 
why a man who counts upon an income of five to ten 
thousand dollars from ten acres, or double that amount 
from twenty acres, should turn his back upon common 
things, and devote his land exclusively to the crops 
which promise such gilded profits. 

This was the general policy, and it conferred great 
prosperity ujDon some classes, particularly the Chinese 
and Italian market-gardeners, who raised food for the 
gentlemen-farmers to eat. There were years, however, 
when the fruit of trees and vines brought very large re- 
turns. Wherever the policy of single crops is pursued, 
whether it be wheat, corn, or cotton, raisins, prunes, or 
oranges, there are occasional years of well-nigh riotous 
prosperity. But such years are frequently more disas- 
trous in their results than sober periods of depression. 
They feed the flame of speculation and raise false indus- 
trial ideals. Under the spell of such times, the people 
depart still further from the safe path of self-sufficient 
agriculture, buying more land to devote to the favorite 
I 129 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

crop, expanding their living expenses, and running into 
debt. Wlien this spirit becomes the breath of industry 
no human laws can avert disaster. 

A true industrial system is like a noble river fed by 
eternal snows : it never floods its banks with an exces- 
sive flow, and never sinks below its normal stage. It 
ebbs and flows with the regular tides of the great com- 
mercial ocean to which it is tributary, but alike at high 
water and at low, it bears the ships of men upon its tran- 
quil bosom. 

After a very intimate acquaintance with California 
horticulture, and with the army of producers who have 
engaged in it, Mr. Edward F. Adams, formerly mana- 
ger of the State Fruit Exchange, wrote as follows : 

"Unless certain reforms in the trade can be effected, 
there is danger that a-large portion of the capital will be 
lost. The mortgage indebtedness is very serious ; the 
general depression in values has temporarily wiped out 
the equities of the nominal owners ; and while a partial 
recovery is doubtless to be expected in due time, it is 
not believed by the best informed that under present 
conditions of marketing, our orchards and vineyards 
can continue to maintain those who occupy them in their 
present standard of comfort. We are endeavoring by a 
general popular movement to remove the evils which op- 
press us." 

Notwithstanding such warnings as this, and the sore 
experience on which they are based, there are real-estate 
interests which still advertise the fabulous larofits of 
California fruit-culture, and there are many who believe 
them and proceed to organize their farms in the old 

way. 

180 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

The evolutionary process of the last twenty years has 
wrought out some very valuable lessons for the future of 
California. It has demonstrated that irrigation is es- 
sential to the highest standard of civilization. The cen- 
sus of 1900 revealed the fact that nearly one-half the 
gain in rural population stood to the credit of eleven coun- 
ties where irrigation prevailed. The counties which rely 
upon rainfall had about reached a stand-still or scored 
a loss. The people have always been divided on the ques- 
tion as to whether irrigation is necessary. Those who 
oppose urge that it breeds malaria and injures the qual- 
ity of the fruit. Those who favor insist that it is essen- 
tial to the most scientific agriculture, and to the main- 
tenance of dense population. The last twenty years 
have answered the question forever. The answer con- 
sists of a comparison between the south and the north. 
The one was born of the irrigation canal; the other of 
the mining-camp and the wheat-ranch. The one is char- 
acterized by a high civilization; the other by a low one. 

With a population, according to the census of 1900, 
of less than a million and a half, California has a 
territory nearly as large as that of France. It is in- 
ferior to France neither in climate, soil, natural re- 
sources, nor sea-coast, and its capacity for sustaining a 
dense population is fully as great as that of the Eu- 
ropean republic. The latter supports more than thirty- 
eight millions. If, then, the comparatively few inhabi- 
tants of the California of to-day are not equally pros- 
perous, it is because they have failed to make the best 
use of their opportunities. "With the same rate of in- 
crease in the next century as in that of the immediate 
past, the United States will contain in the year 2000 

131 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEllICA 

a population of over one thousand millions. Noth- 
ing is more certain than that California must receive its 
full share of these future millions. It seems hardly less 
certain that they will realize there the highest destiny 
of the race. But how? 

Notwithstanding the supreme attractions of its rural 
life, more than seventy-three per cent, of California's 
total increase in the last decade covered by the national 
census settled in towns and cities. As a result, the ur- 
ban life of this far, new State is as badly congested as 
that of the old communities of the East. But the pos- 
sibilities of agriculture, of manufacture, and of mining 
are relatively untouched. Ultimate California remains 
to be fashioned from these undeveloped materials. The 
tendencies of future gi'owth are revealed by the teaching 
of the past, and not less by its failures than by its suc- 
cesses — not less by the fury of old speculations than by 
the calm current of these saner times. 

The future tides of population in the Golden State 
must first spend their energy upon the soil. It is the 
creation of a new and ampler civilization that is involved, 
and agriculture must be its foundation. But if those 
now engaged in cultivating the soil can scarcely main- 
tain themselves, what hope is there for new recruits in 
the industry? The question is natural, but the answer 
is conclusive. There is no hope for them if they engage 
in speculation, but there is an absolute guaranty of a 
living and a competence, to be enjoyed under the most 
satisfying and ennobling social conditions, if they work 
upon sound industrial lines. These lines are clearly dis- 
closed by the light of past exj)erience. 

Three classes of products should enter into the cal- 

132 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

dilations of the new settler in California: the things he 
consumes ; the things California now imports from east- 
ern States and foreign countries ; the things which east- 
ern communities consume, but can never hope to pro- 
duce, and of which California possesses virtually a 
monopoly. In the first list is almost everything which 
would appear in an elaborate dinner menu, from the 
course of olives to the course of oranges, nuts, and 
raisins, and excluding only the coffee. This policy of 
self-sustenance has been ignored to a startling degree in 
the mad struggle for riches, but the coming millions of 
farmers can be sure of a luxurious living only by stoop- 
ing to collect it from the soil. 

In the second list are many of the commonest articles 
of consumption, which California might readily produce 
at home, but for which it sends millions of dollars 
abroad each year. The imports of pork and its products 
range as high as eight or ten millions each year. Con- 
densed milk is not only a very important article of con- 
sumption in mining -camps and great ranches, but is 
largely shipped abroad for the Asiatic trade. It is 
brought across the continent from New Jersey. Cali- 
fornia also sends beyond its borders from twenty to 
twenty-five millions annually for the item of sugar, which 
should not only be produced in sufficient quantities to 
supply consumption, but for export as well. It is a 
curious fact that many of the finest fruit preserves sold 
in San Francisco bear French and Italian labels, and 
that the supply of canned sweet corn comes mostly from 
Maine. Essential oils made from the peelings of citrus 
fruits are also imported. It is not uncommon to find 
orange marmalade which has been prepared in Rochester, 

133 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

New York, the oranges having been shipped eastward, 
and the mannfactured product westward, at the cost of 
two transcontinental freights. Imports are by no means 
confined to things which require capital and machinery 
for their manufacture. Chickens, turkeys, and eggs are 
largely brought from outside. A single commission- 
house in San Francisco imports five hundred thousand 
chickens every year. It is true that during the last few 
years notable progress has been made in sugar manufact- 
ure and in some other lines of production formerly alto- 
gether neglected, yet many thousands of new settlers can 
be profitably employed in feeding the growing home popu- 
lation. 

Having made perfectly sure of his living, and disposed 
of his surplus for cash in the home market, the settler 
still has left a promising field in the list of things which 
nine-tenths of the American people consume but cannot 
produce. Among these products are oranges, lemons, 
and limes. Florida competition in this line has been 
temporarily destroyed, if not permanently injured. Mex- 
ico is, perhaps, a rising competitor ; but there is little 
reason to fear that California cannot hold its own against 
all foreign producers. Even more promising is the olive- 
culture ; for while the orange is an article of luxury, the 
olive must ultimately become here as elsewhere an im- 
portant article of food. Calif ornians are just beginning 
to pickle the ripe olives. The difference between a green 
olive and a ripe one is precisely the difference between a 
green and a ripe apple. In Spain the people subsist 
largely on olives — but not on green ones. All who have 
eaten the ripe fruit which is now being pickled in Cal- 
ifornia will agree that it is conservative to say that 
Avlien the American public become acquainted Avith this 

134 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

product, its consumption will be enormously increased. 
This will be true, because in its new form the olive is as 
nutritious as it is palatable, and the people will learn to 
depend upon it as an article of diet. In the production 
of deciduous fruits, such as peaches, apricots, cherries, 
and nectarines, California has much competition, and is 
to have much more in the future. There are irrigated 
valleys throughout the Pacific Northwest, the inter- 
mountain region, and the now undeveloped Southwest, 
which are beginning to produce marvellous fruits of this 
kind. The same is true of olives, almonds, and walnuts 
in a much more restricted way. The Calif ornia wine in- 
dustry is promising to-day, and the culture of grapes for 
this purpose profitable. Planters who depend for their 
entire income upon the cultivation of these export crops 
will necessarily suffer all the evils of S23eculative farm- 
ing, but those who have founded their industry upon the 
plan of self-sufficiency will always have a surplus income 
from this third source, and in years of high prices it will 
be large. It is thus that the agricultural basis of Cali- 
fornia will be indefinitely broadened in order to sustain 
future millions. 

Upon this foundation manufactures, mining, and an 
enlarged commerce will rest. The first cannot be long 
delayed. California will not permanently endure the 
enormous waste involved in shipping its wool and hides 
across the continent to Eastern mills, tanneries, and 
workshops, and in shipping back again the manufactured 
cloth and shoes. The factories must inevitably grow up 
near the raw material and the consumers. Expediency 
and the economy of nature alike demand it. This im- 
portant part of California's civilization remains almost 

135 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

wholly to be developed. Its growth will open new av- 
enues for employment and new outlets for the products 
of the soil. 

The mining industry is also in its youth. To use a 
common phrase, but a true one, " the surface of the 
ground has only been scratched." Old methods have 
been outlived, and the conditions of the industry are 
changing in vital ways ; but the work of taking gold and 
silver, copper, lead, and iron from the foot-hills and 
mountains of California has only been begun. The day 
of the individual miner, working with his pan in the 
gravel bed of the stream, is mostly passed. The conditions 
of hydraulic mining were materially altered by legisla- 
tion because of the injury done by polluting the rivers 
and filling their channels ; but quartz-mining is in a 
state of rapid development, and is destined to assume 
prodigious proportions. It will add untold millions to 
the wealth of the community, inci'easing the demand for 
labor and widening the markets of the farmer. 

Nature has unquestionably provided the foundation of 
a marvellous industrial life in which millions of people 
will finally participate. To-day these resources are un- 
developed. There is but one force that can awaken the 
sleeping jootentialities into a manifold and fruitful life. 
That force is human labor. Looking down the years of 
the future, it is possible to predict, with the accuracy of 
mathematics, that human labor will coin from these va- 
cant valleys and rugged mountain-sides billions upon 
billions of money. The wealth to be so created will 
build many beautiful homes, capitalize banks, factories, 
and railroads, and send great steamships across the Pa- 
cific to foreign shores. To whom shall these things be- 

136 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

long when labor has made them from the materials 
which nature provided ? Upon the answer to that ques- 
tion hang the destinies of California. 

The seed of the California of the past was in the little 
group of feverish gold-hunters who camped by Sutter's 
mill in 1849. It bore the gaudy weed of speculation, 
with its bitter harvest of misfortune and discontent for 
the many, accentuated only by the superfluous riches 
Avhich it gave to the few. The seed of the California of 
the future is in the irrigation canals owned and admin- 
istered by small landed proprietors ; in the fruit ex- 
changes, which are supplanting the commission system 
and securing to the producer the rewards of his labor ; 
in the co - operative creameries and canning factories 
which, in the face of deficient capital and unfair compe- 
tition, are slowly figliting their way to the sure ground 
of abiding prosperity ; in the multitudinous and uni- 
formly successful manufacturing and mercantile associ- 
ations which Mormon genius has planted in the valleys 
of Utah ; in the banks, insurance companies, and loan 
and building societies which, all over the Union and all 
over the world, have vindicated the possibilities of asso- 
ciated man. 

It is interesting to consider what portions of California 
will receive the bulk of the future population. The 
topography of the State is peculiar and readily compre- 
hended. The coast region presents a frontage of over 
one thousand miles to the sea, and is narrowly hemmed 
in by mountain ranges which, in many places, come down 
to the shore itself. But in these mountains there are 
many picturesque and fertile valleys which have long 
been applied to agricultural purposes. The coast region 

137 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

has a climate of its own. It is the mildest type of the 
temperate zone, closely verging upon the semi-tropical, 
but not adapted to the growth of citrus fruits. Here 
the rainfall is heavier than elsewhere in California, and 
proximity to the sea gives rise to frequent fogs. In the 
southern extremity of this region, from Santa Barbara 
to San Diego, the climate becomes genuinely semi- 
tropical and fogs are less common. North of San Fran- 
cisco the leading industries are lumbering, dairying, 
stock-raising, and general farming, with some mining. 
In a few favored valleys fruit-raising on small farms is 
successfully followed. South of San Frauciso the lum- 
ber and mining interests are insignificant, and the coun- 
try is mostly devoted to dairy, stock, and general farming. 
A most notable exception to what has been said of the 
general condition of the coast region is the Santa Clara 
Valley, which contributes enormously to the exports of 
the State. In the beauty of its homes and orchards and 
the excellence of its horticultural methods, in the organ- 
ization of its fruit exchanges, and the character of its 
urban life and civic institntions, the Santa Clara Valley 
is fully equal to the most ideal localities in California, 
not even excepting the famous orange districts near Los 
Angeles. There are numerous ojiportunities in counties 
farther south, notably in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, 
and Santa Barbara, to apply the same methods with 
similar results. But while the Santa Clara Valley rep- 
resents the finest possibilities of the coast region, it 
also strikingly illustrates certain failings in the econom- 
ic system of the State which have been dwelt upon in 
earlier pages. Land is almost exclusively devoted to 
fruit. Farmers buy their milk, butter, eggs, poultry, 

138 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

bacon, and fresh meats of others. They themselves pro- 
duce none of the real necessaries of life, but only the 
luxuries. One reason for this is the lack of irrigation. 
They have taught themselves to believe that this is not 
only unnecessary, but would actually be injurious to the 
quality of their fruit. They are learning gradually, 
however, that this idea is erroneous — that skilful and 
proper irrigation is always beneficial, and that artificial 
moisture is imperatively necessary to diversified produc- 
tion; hence, to the highest business prosperity and best 
social conditions. When this lesson is learned by the 
coast region as a whole a new era will set in, and great 
numbers of colonists will come. 

What is popularly known as southern California is a 
narrowly restricted district reaching eastward from Los 
Angeles for about one hundred miles and southward to 
San Diego. Like the coast region, its character is fixed, 
though on widely different lines. Its population is al- 
ready comparatively dense, and its future growth Avill be 
measured by the water supply for irrigation. While it 
would seem as if the water resources had been fully 
utilized, the fact is that large quantities run to waste in 
seasons of flood, and that the cultivable area can be 
gradually extended by storage works and more economi- 
cal methods of irrigation. 

It is an impressive fact that the seven counties of the 
south received ninety per cent, of the increase of rural 
population between 1890 and 1900. This marvel- 
lous showing was chiefly due to the superior public spirit 
of the locality, and to the attractive institutions which 
grew out of it. Los Angeles itself is the throbbing 
heart of a region which, in many respects, has no equal 

139 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

in the world. The leading characteristics of this local- 
ity have been referred to in another chapter. But the 
very success which attended these methods in the past 
places limitations upon the country as a field for future 
expansion. Land values have risen high and the water 
supply has become almost as precious as gold. Health- 
seekers and the leisure class have been attracted in large 
numbers and occupy the field which would otherwise be 
open to home-makers of smaller means. A class of 
weathy people is a prominent feature of immigration in 
the southern valley. These opulent settlers plant or- 
chards of oranges, lemons, and olives, Just as their poorer 
neighbors do. It is reassuring to reflect, however, that 
they can accomplish little more with their abundant capi- 
tal than humbler settlers may do with their united labor. 
The sun, the sky, the earth, and the waters will be as 
kind to one class as to the other. While it should not be 
inferred that none but the very rich can settle in the 
south, it is perfectly true that this charming district is 
not within the field of the largest future developments. 
Where, then, is the field to accommodate the hosts who 
will come when the population of California begins to 
approximate that of France? It lies principally in four 
great and distinct bodies, which may be named, in the 
order of their importance, as follows: the Sacramento 
Valley, stretching north from the bay of San Francisco 
to the feet of snowy Shasta; the San Joaquin Valley, 
reaching south from the great bay to the place where the 
two mountain-ranges meet at the pass of Tehachapi; 
the intermountain valleys on the eastern slope of the 
Sierra, extending over the boundary into Nevada; and 

140 



EMPIEE STxlTE OF THE PACIFIC 

tlie Colorado Desert, in the extreme southeastern part 
of the state, on the borders of Mexico. 

The first of these, the Valley of the Sacramento, pre- 
sents one of the most remarkable opportunities for col- 
onization to be found in the world. Although it repre- 
sents rather less than one-half of the great interior val- 
ley of California, its length is equal to the distance from 
New York to Richmond, Virginia. Unlike other parts of 
the State, it is magnificently favored in its water supply. 
Government experts declare that ten million acres could 
be irrigated, and it is probably within bounds to say that 
a total of ten million people could be sustained, in town 
and country, when the resources of the region are brought 
under full development. It is rich in timber and min- 
erals, while its climate favors the production of every- 
thing for which California is famous. Although hun- 
dreds of miles north of Los Angeles, it produces the 
earliest fruits, including oranges. It has navigable 
streams, capable of much improvement. The Sacramento 
Eiver itself is valuable for commerce for a distance of 
nearly two hundred miles north of the bay of San Fran- 
cisco. 

But with all these remarkable advantages, the rural 
population increased but a beggarly thousand in the 
decade covered by the last census (1890-1900). The 
gain in town population during the same period was 
9,240, making a net gain of a little over ten thousand for 
the Sacramento Valley as a whole. 

What is the explanation of this stagnation in rural 
settlement? The country is held in large estates, prin- 
cipally devoted to the cultivation of grain, which is always 

141 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

a speculative industr}^, with alternating periods of pros- 
perity and depression. Even horticulture is often con- 
ducted on a great scale in this region. The orchards 
and vineyards of the Stanford and Bidwell estates are 
striking examples of this tendency. The public spirit 
which gave the southern counties their splendid place 
in the life of the Pacific Coast is lacking in the north, 
though strongly represented by an aggressive and per- 
sistent minority whose influence is apparently gaining 
ground. The truth is that such public spirit is culti- 
vated only with tlie greatest difficulty in a land of wheat 
fields and mining camps. It comes with irrigation, with 
the subdivision of land into thousands of small holdings, 
with a citizenship composed of a multitude of small 
proprietors. 

Irrigation is by no means absolutely necessary in the 
Sacramento Valley. If it were, the story of its progress 
would be different. No one could then truthfully assert, 
as now, that this splendid district sustains less popula- 
tion on the soil than it did a quarter of a century since. 
While irrigation is not indispensable, it is essential to 
the best and highest results, especially in the line of 
small-farming. The rainless season usually extends 
from May until November. Without artificial moisture 
there can be no beautiful lawns, successive crops of 
vegetables and small fruits, or goodly yields of alfalfa. 
Citrus fruits cannot be profitably cultivated without it, 
and there is no fruit that is not improved, both in quality 
and quantity, by the proper application of water. This 
claim is often stoutly disputed, particularly by those 
wishing to sell land that is unprovided with irrigation 

143 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

facilities. But experience has taught that northern 
California may only hope to equal the southern part 
of the State by imitating its industrial methods, of 
which irrigation is first and foremost. 

A striking example of what can be done upon these 
rich lands by means of irrigation and intensive cultiva- 
tion is furnished by the experience of Samuel C. Cleek, 
who lived for many years on a single acre at the little 
town of Orland, in Glenn County. On this one acre he 
not only supported himself and wife in generous comfort, 
but averaged a cash saving of four hundred dollars a 
year. He had money to loan to his less fortunate neigh- 
bors and money to give to any good cause. Moreover, 
he had the advantage of living in the midst of good 
neighbors and close to store, church, post-office, and 
school. Think of it ! This man out of debt, sure of his 
living year after year, with property and savings which 
entitled him to be regarded as moderately rich, and all 
from one irrigated acre; while neighbors with thousands 
of acres in wheat, and other neighbors with considerable 
areas in fruit, labored under loads of debt bearing high 
interest, or were sold out by the sheriff. 

It is not to be contended that one acre of irrigated 
land is enough for the average family, nor that every 
man may expect to be as successful a gardener or as 
thrifty a manager as Mr. Clcek. When we see so remark- 
able a result as this we know that the personal equation 
must account for some of it. Nevertheless, the fact re- 
mains that small farms, under diversified and intensive 
cultivation by means of irrigation, would make the 
Sacramento Yalley a paradise and enable it to support 

143 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

millions of people in a condition of rare independence 
and prosperity. Under such a policy this district alone 
would absorb enough surplus men to steady the Nation 
in some great crisis of the future. The development 
would demand not only farmers, but bankers, merchants, 
mechanics, and men and women of every profession. 

The business opportunity presented by these conditions 
has at last attracted the attention of enterprise and 
capital, with the result that rich estates are being brought 
under irrigation, subdivided, and placed upon the mar- 
ket. Prices range from fifty to one hundred dollars an 
acre, so that small farms can be obtained by families 
of moderate means. On such farms, industrious settlers 
would be able to produce nearly all that they consume 
and have much to sell for cash. They may not realize 
at the beginning the most ideal social and economic con- 
ditions, for these wait upon the adoption of large public 
policies, but many a man will be able to improve his lot 
by joining the slender stream of settlement which is 
beginning to flow upon the irrigated lands of the Sacra- 
mento. 

However, the great economic problems of this region 
will not be solved by private enterprise, alone. The 
work to be done is so vast that only the Government is 
capable of grappling with it successfully. Important 
steps have already been taken toward this end. De- 
tailed surveys of the entire floor of the Sacramento 
Valley, together with careful studies of forestry condi- 
tions in its drainage basins, are under way. Ultimately, 
millions of dollars must be expended in the storage of 
flood waters, in the building of canals for irrigation and 

144 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

drainage, in the development of power, in the preserva- 
tion and extension of the forests. The planning and 
directing of this work has fallen to the hands of Joseph 
Barlow Lippincott, one of the strongest characters who 
has been brought to the front by the national irrigation 
policy. 

" I believe the Sacramento Valley offers the greatest unde- 
veloped opportunity in Arid America, but I also believe that 
the problem involved in its reclamation is one of the most ex- 
tensive and intricate that we have to deal with in Arid Amer- 
ica," writes Mr. Lippincott. " I believe that it can be solved 
and that it will be solved, and I hope that the Reclamation 
Service will be able to lend material aid in its solution." 

The golden age of colonization in the Sacramento 
Valley will come with the fruition of these plans. 

Tlie hope of that better and greater Sacramento Valley 
which is sure to unfold in tlie coming years was embodied 
in the life and teachings of a great man who passed 
from sight in June, 1905. This man was William 
Semple Green, familiarly and affectionately known to 
California for more than half a century as Will Green. 
He came with the Argonauts, but he had no eyes for the 
gold which absorbed their attention. From boyhood to 
old age, his one dream M'as to see the Great Valley 
watered, peopled, cultivated, and glorified by millions of 
independent homes. To make this dream come true he 
gave a lifetime of unselfish devotion. He lived to re- 
ceive the assurance that all he had hoped and worked for 
would come to pass, though not to behold the reality with 
mortal eyes. He escorted the Congressional Irrigation 
Committees through the valley in June, 1905, and had 
the profound satisfaction of listening to the plans which 
K 145 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

the Government has made for a vast work of reclamation, 
and the even keener satisfaction of seeing these plans 
enthusiastically approved by that public which had for 
decades scorned the suggestion that irrigation alone could 
make the land of the Sacramento come into its own. 
His last words to the people of the valley, spoken at Red 
Bluff at the close of a banquet tendered to the visiting 
Congressmen, were these: 

" For fifty years I have waited for this hour to come. I know 
now that I have not labored in vain. If I can but live to go up 
on Pisgah, and see tliis valley redeemed, and the home of God's 
chosen people, I shall be ready to lay me down and die." 

A few days later, he passed on. But his work was 
done, and nobly done. His fame will live and grow 
with the valley for which he prayed as his life went 
out. 

The San Joaquin Valley is even larger than its north- 
ern sister, which it resembles in nearly all fundamental 
respects. Indeed, the conditions of soil, climate, and 
productions are so nearly identical that they need not 
be rehearsed. There is one point of difference which is 
quite vital, however, and which has made itself felt in 
the history of San Joaquin. This is the fact that 
rainfall is appreciably less and that, as a consequence, 
irrigation is much more necessary. Hence, the small 
farm became popular many years ago and compara- 
tively dense population has grown up in certain locali- 
ties. The best example is the city and county of Fresno, 
in the heart of the valley. 

146 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

Perhaps the earliest triumph of the new woman in 
this generation was that of Miss Austin and three other 
San Francisco " schoolma'ams/' who founded the won- 
derful Fresno raisin industry. Investing their savings 
in a ranch and boldly venturing upon a culture in which 
few had faith, they demonstrated that raisins equal to 
those of Spain could be produced in California. They 
were rewarded with handsome profits, and thousands 
came to share in the benefits of their demonstration. 
All the evils that attend speculation in a single crop 
followed as a natural consequence, and brought a period 
of hard times. Unskilful irrigation without adequate 
drainage also wrought harm in various ways. But 
Fresno has largely outlived these misfortunes and the 
raisin industry gradually progresses to more stable con- 
ditions. On the whole, it played a wonderful part in 
the transformation of what was once but a poor stock 
range into a region of prosperous vineyards and beautiful 
homes. 

The San Joaquin Valley has been much more fortun- 
ate than the Sacramento or any other part of California, 
in commanding private capital for the development of 
its agricultural resources. As a consequence, there are 
many opportunities for the settler to obtain good irri- 
gated land on reasonable terms. J. B. Haggin and 
Lloyd Tevis invested millions of dollars in turning the 
waters of Kern Eiver upon the rich delta of that stream. 
Bakersfield, which has become famous in recent years as 
the capital of an oil kingdom, is also the centre of the 
large district irrigated by the Kern. This is situated 
at the southern end of the valley. The rich Crocker 

147 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA. 

estate has done a similar work on the Merced River, near 
the centre of the valley. In both cases opportunities 
have been opened to settlers which must otherwise have 
remained beyond their reach because of the large invest- 
ment required to bring land and water together. 

The San Joaquin has also been the scene of successful 
irrigation of another kind. Under what is known as 
the District Irrigation Law, large areas have been re- 
claimed by associations of landowners on the Tuolumne 
and Kings Rivers. The most important of these dis- 
tricts are the Turlock and the Modesto, on the former, 
and the Alta, on the latter. Industrious families of 
small means are making homes successfully in these 
localities, as well as in many other parts of the valley 
which are irrigated by smaller works. 

The orange-growing district in the foothills of Tulare 
County, under the waters of the Tule River, are notably 
successful. Porterville is the centre of this district and 
seems destined to become an important city, as it is 
already a charming home-spot. Land and water are 
cheaper here than in the more famous orange districts 
of the south, but the profits of the industry are no less 
on that account. The higher improvement of the 
southern districts is doubtless due to the fact that a 
wealthier class of colonists was attracted there, rather 
than to superior natural advantages. 

The valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin have 
been, and are yet, the grain-fields of the Pacific Coast. 
Many of their residents have bemoaned the fall in the 
price of wheat as the greatest of calamities. The truth 



148 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

is that for California it is the first of blessings. The 
fall in wheat prices has broken the land monopoly which 
kept labor servile and gave the most fruitful of coun- 
tries to four-footed beasts rather than to men. Not until 
nearly all great ranches had been mortgaged to their 
full capacity, not until the failure of prices had made 
the debts intolerably burdensome and brought their 
owners face to face with disaster, was it possible to 
open the country for its best and highest uses. With 
the supremacy of wheat will go the shanty and the 
"hobo" laborer, to be followed in time by the China- 
man. In their places will come the home and the man 
who works for himself. Civilization will bloom where 
barbarism has blighted the land. There are localities 
where the cultivation of grain can be pursued, but the 
semi-tropical valleys of California were plainly intended 
for better things. 

Irrigation, drainage, and cheap transportation are close- 
ly related as economic problems in the great interior val- 
leys. William Hammond Hall, the former State engineer, 
has predicted that within fifty years the waters which rise 
in the mountains and meander through these valleys to 
the sea will all be utilized to moisten and fertilize the 
soil, and then be turned into canals, serving the double 
purjiose of drainage and transportation. He claims that 
it is feasible, from an engineering stand-point, to con- 
struct such works, and to propel trains of freight-boats 
by electricity at a speed of six miles an hour. If this 
shall be done, the gain to the State will be beyond all 
calculation, provided the works be owned by the public. 
It is by no means an idle dream when considered in con- 
nection with ultimate California. 

149 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The third field for future development is a vast region 
lying upon the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. This 
is so little known to the outside world that it may almost 
be named as Undiscovered California. It is reached 
only by lines of narrow-gauge railway running northwest 
and southwest, respectively, from Eeno, Nevada. The 
northerly district is included in the three great coun- 
ties of Plumas, Lassen, and Modoc. The country is 
distinctly arid, lying upon the western flank of the great 
basin formed by the Sierra Nevada and "Wasatch ranges, 
which inclose portions of California, Idaho, and Utah, and 
all of Nevada. Here we find the real sage-brush desert — 
fertile, well-watered valleys surrounded by all the wealth 
of forest, mine, and natural pastures. The climate ap- 
proximates much more nearly to that of New Mexico 
than to that commonly associated with the name of Cali- 
fornia. It is of the milder type of the temperate zone, 
favorable to the growth of such hardy fruits as apples, 
pears, peaches, and prunes. Up to this time, however, 
the chief products of the country are native and alfalfa 
hay, cattle, sheep, and horses. The sparse population 
is, perhaps, as prosperous as any farming community in 
the United States. This fact is mostly due to the vast 
extent of fine grazing lands surrounding irrigated valleys 
and to the herds of cattle and sheep which find their way 
to the farmers' hay-stacks from the ranges of northern 
California, southern Oregon, and western Nevada every 
autumn and winter. 

The most important district in this region is Honey 
Lake Valley, lying eighty miles northwest of Reno. Here 
a new era has set in with water-storage for irrigation, 
small farms, and colonies planned upon the best ideals. 

150 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

Cheap land, valuable surrounding resources, and a cli- 
mate similar to that in which our race has flourished 
best, would seem to combine in favoring a large and 
rapid future growth. 

The more southern body east of the Sierras lies chiefly 
in Inyo County. This is also at the early stage of 
development. The climate is milder, though still tem- 
perate rather than semi-tropical, than in the more north- 
ern counties. There are many beautiful valleys and an 
abundance of water, timber, and minerals. 

Lack of railroad facilities and remoteness from large 
cities account for the backwardness of development in 
these attractive regions on the eastern slope of the moun- 
tains. They present to-day the finest field for develop- 
ment in California, and one of the finest in the United 
States. There can be no question that during this 
century they will become the homes of hundreds of thou- 
sands of people and the seat of a manifold industrial 
life. 

The fourth field open to future conquest is a district 
which was formerly the most famous of waste places in 
America. In the earlier edition of this work, written 
in 1899, I spoke of this locality as follows: 

" It is popularly regarded as an empire of hopeless 
sterility, the silence of which will never be broken by the 
voices of men. As the transcontinental traveller views it 
from his flying train it presents an aspect indeed forbid- 
ding. Neither animal life nor human habitation breaks 
its level monotony. It stretches from mountain-range 
to mountain-range, a brown waste of dry and barren 
soil. And yet it only awaits the touch of water and of 

151 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

labor to awaken into opulent life.* * * ]\Iuch time will 
be required to overcome the wide and ingrained public 
prejudice against the Colorado Desert, but it will finally 
be reclaimed and sustain tens of thousands of prosperous 
people. It is more like Syria than any other part of the 
United States, and the daring imagination may readily 
conceive that here a new Damascus will arise more 
beautiful than that of old." 

Six short years have passed, yet the dream has al- 
ready come true. The very name of " The Colorado 
Desert " has vanished from the minds of men, and in its 
place we have a term which is synonymous with the 
highest productivity, with fat acres and fat cattle, with 
green fields, flowing waters, red-roofed farm houses, and 
rising towns. This name is " The Imperial Valley." 
In the summer of 1901, the waters of the Colorado River 
were turned upon this desert, and the most dramatic 
transformation ever seen in the United States quickly 
followed. Settlers and speculators rushed in to file upon 
the land and purchase water rights. Nearly a quarter 
of a million acres were thus acquired in the space of a few 
months, and the work of development went forward with 
furious energy. 

While much of the land was taken under evil land laws 
which do not require actual residence or genuine improve- 
ment, nevertheless, over one hundred thousand acres 
were prepared for cultivation and planted to crops. 
Towns with schools, churches, banks, fine hotels, and 
all the conveniences of civilization, sprang up like magic. 
Railroads were quickly extended into the country, while 
telephone and telegraph supplied the means of quick 

153 




THE DESERT BEFORE AND AFTER. — Upper picture shows Colorado 
Desert (now Imperial Valley), California, as it appeared before 
irrij^ation — a brown waste of soil without vegetation. Lower 
picture shows the same land after irrigation, with two years' 
growth of cottonwoods. 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

communication. In a word, the picture which I drew 
from imagination in 1899 is reproduced on the face of 
the earth in 1905. And yet, what we now see is but the 
beginning of the achievement which will come in the 
future. This will be one of the most densely peopled 
agricultural districts in the world, and wealth which 
cannot now be estimated will come from the soil which, 
a few years ago, the average man would have scorned if 
offered a deed in fee simple for the whole domain. There 
could be no more wonderful example of the miracle of 
irrigation. 

The work which has been accomplished by private 
enterprise in the rich delta of the Colorado Eiver is one 
which was peculiarly adapted to national enterprise. 
Doubtless it would have been done by the Government 
if the private undertaking had been delayed by so much 
as two or three years. The National Irrigation Act be- 
came a law within twelve months of the time that water 
was first turned upon the desert. The region imme- 
diately attracted the attention of the national engineers, 
who proceeded to plan comprehensive works, of which 
we shall learn the details in subsequent pages. In the 
spring of 1904, a strong public demand arose for the 
inclusion of the Imperial region in the Government proj- 
ect. This demand was based to some extent upon the 
apprehension that the private system would prove un- 
equal to the demands of the situation, but more upon 
complications which had arisen with Mexico, and upon 
the deep-seated popular antipathy to the private mono- 
poly of water in an arid land. The movement encoun- 
tered temporary failure because the Government and the 

153 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

private owners could not agree on the purchase price of 
the irrigation system which had produced such sudden 
and dazzling results in the development of the region. 
The price recommended by the settlers and accepted by 
the Company, was three million dollars. Whether this 
figure was reasonable or exorbitant can only be deter- 
mined by future events, but there can be no possible 
doubt that the final outcome will be a single comprehen- 
sive work of reclamation, from the Grand Canyon of the 
Colorado to the Gulf of California, controlled by the 
United States of Araerica. Nothing short of this is 
worthy of the opportunity. 

The town life of California, considered from the 
standpoint of the man who contemplates going West, 
is not strikingly different from that in any other part 
of the United States. The growth of towns is out of all 
proportion to the development of the surrounding 
country. This is due rather to an influx of Eastern 
people than to any local tendency to desert the rural 
districts. If in certain restricted localities young men 
are leaving the farm for the city, the loss is more than 
made good by the number of newcomers who are seeking 
homes in the country. The fact remains that urban 
growth is strongest because the majority of those coming 
from older sections of the United States seek to make 
places for themselves in the larger centres of popula- 
tion. 

The commercial and political centre of California is, 
of course, San Francisco. The State's front door is the 
Golden Gate. The metropolitan community, which may 
be defined as Greater San Francisco, includes all the 

154 




TOWN HCii.DiNc; IN THE DESERT.— Upper picture shows beginning 

of Imperial, Calitornia, March, icjoi. Lower picture, one 

side of same street four years later. 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

cities and towns about the bay. And though this com- 
munity is little more than fifty years old, it is already 
about the size of Boston. There is apparently no reason 
why it should not, in the course of the long future, be- 
come as large and important in every way as New York 
itself. Never was there a better foundation for a mighty 
city than in San Francisco and its environs — the moun- 
tain-sheltered harbor, with wide expanse of deep waters; 
the sloping shores running back to foothills and moun- 
tains; the noble bay stretching inland, with rivers 
navigable far into the interior; half a continent behind 
it, and before it the measureless possibilities of foreign 
worlds. When to these substantial considerations are 
added the charms of climate and scenery and the social 
and educational advantages which have arisen, and must 
arise much more in the future, from the wise use of 
private and public wealth, one might be excused for 
dreaming of San Francisco as the focal point of civiliza- 
tion in coming generations. 

Of the cities about the bay, Oakland is second in im- 
portance to San Francisco, to which it sustains about the 
same relation as Brooklyn to New York. Like Brooklyn, 
it is becoming important in manufacture and commerce, 
having a magnificent water frontage where goods may be 
moved to east-bound trains directly from the ships, in- 
stead of having to be ferried across the bay, as in the 
case of the sister city. Alameda is a delightful residence 
suburb. Berkeley is the seat of that institution which is 
the pride of the people, the University of California. 
Among the numerous and beautiful towns near San 
Francisco, Palo Alto enjoys a special prominence as the 

155 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

site of Leland Stanford Junior University. The growth 
of all the communities clustering about San Francisco, 
while not sensational in recent years, is constant and 
substantial. 

Sacramento is the chief city of the valley of that 
name. It contains about thirty thousand people and is 
the capital of the State. While its relative importance 
is by no means the same as in the early mining times, 
it is a beautiful and influential community, and destined 
to be more so as its surrounding resources are developed. 

Of the cities of the San Joaquin, Stockton is most 
advantageously located. It stands at the head of naviga- 
tion on the San Joaquin River, in the midst of a rich 
agricultural region. It should be, as it is now becoming, 
the seat of many industries. It is difficult to place 
limits upon the reasonable growth of Stockton whenever 
the policy of irrigation, of the subdivision of lands, and of 
diversified farming, shall be made to take the place of 
dependence upon rainfall, of large holdings, and of the 
single crop. It already enjoys cheap freight and pas- 
senger transportation to San Francisco, by lines of 
steamers which cover the distance in a night. The possi- 
bilities of this traffic are immense and the advantages 
which it confers upon Stockton as a commercial and 
manufacturing city in connection with agricultural de- 
velopment are well-nigh incalculable. 

The chief cities of the south are Los Angeles and San 
Diego. The gro^^i;h of the former is amazing.* . Its 

* Los Angeles had a population, by the U. S. Census. 
In 1850, 1,610 In 1880, 11,183 

1860, 4,385 1890, 50,395 

1870, 5,728 1900, 102,479 

156 



EMPIRE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

present total is not far from two hundred thousand, and 
no one familiar with its history would be much surprised 
to see it approximate half a million by the date of the 
next national census. The secret of its vitality is not 
found on the surface. It is not due to its commerce, for 
it is twenty miles from the sea and without a natural 
harbor, though even this deficiency is now being supplied 
by public enterprise. Neither does its trade with the 
interior account for its constant and ever-increasing 
prosperity. The superlative charm of Los Angeles and 
the region surrounding is social rather than economic. 
Men and women desire to live where they may realize 
their highest possibilities as social beings. And Los 
Angeles has become the metropolis of a district which 
satisfies this instinct more fully than any other part of 
the United States. People come originally as tourists 
to spend a few blissful weeks in the winter. Many of 
them return as colonists and throw themselves into the 
life of the place with all the zeal of converts, thereby 
swelling a tide of public spirit which is already indomi- 
table. Tlieir confidence in the future is boundless, and 
they "pull their weight," — all of them. That it is 
which has made Los Angeles. 

In the most remarkable book ever written about Cali- 
fornia, " The Eight Hand of the Continent," Mr. Charles 
P. Lummis makes the following striking statements 
concerning the growth of Los Angeles: 

" Not one city in the United States which was no larger than 
Los Angeles in 1890 is larger now ; not one city which was no 
larger in 1880 is larger now. In other words, not a single city 
in the Union has overtaken Los Angeles in rank by population. 

157 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

But in these two decades, Los Angeles has outstripped 99 
American cities which were numerically larger in 1880 ; and in 
one decade has passed 19 cities that were numerically larger in 
1890. In 1880, Los Angeles was the 135th city in the Union in 
population. In 1890 it was the 56th. In 1900 it was the 36th. 
There are now 85 cities in the United States larger than Los 
Angeles ; but only 13 cities have gained as many people in the 
ten years from 1890 to 1900." 

And he shows that the cities which scored a larger in- 
crease in that time were as follows: New York, Chicago, 
Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, 
Buffalo, Pittsburg, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, and 
Indianapolis. 

Southern California is becoming the playground of the 
Rojjublic, and Los Angeles is its capital. But those who 
come to play remain to work — to build hotels and office 
buildings, to establish railroads and factories, to develop 
the rich natural resources of the country. No ordinary 
rules explain its past growth or set limits to its future 
expansion. It has been, and it will be, a law unto it- 
self. 

The case of San Diego is somewhat different. A great 
city might grow up upon its site for precisely the same 
reasons that great cities grew up at Boston and New 
York. San Diego has the only natural harbor in Cali- 
fornia south of San Francisco. It is the nearest Ameri- 
can port to the Western outlet of the Panama Canal. It 
occupies a strategic position with relation to the com- 
merce of Central and South America, Australia, and the 
Orient. It is the logical terminus of a transcontinental 
railway which would make the shortest line across the 
continent to some port on the South Atlantic Coast of 

158 



EMPIEE STATE OF THE PACIFIC 

the United States. Such a railway would have the 
lowest grades and the most certain immunity from snow 
blockades. It ought to be the seaport and trading centre 
for Arizona — which is another South Africa — and the 
whole southwest. If nature ever planned the site of a 
great city, it did so where the encircling shores rise from 
plain to hill, from hill to mountain-range, about the 
lovely bay of San Diego. The city has a population of 
over twenty-five thousand and is growing rapidly. 

It is conceded that San Diego enjoys the best climate 
in the United States. Those who visit it in winter de- 
clare that that season is more delightful than its perfect 
summer; and those who visit it in summer declare that it 
is then even better than in winter. And both are right ! 
The best season in San Diego is the one you last spent 
there, whether it happens to be winter or summer. The 
city lies between those vast mysteries, the desert and the 
sea, and its atmosphere is a charming blend of both. 
These extraordinary climatic conditions must in time 
give the place and its surroundings an enviable pre- 
eminence as a popular resort all the year round. Eastern 
people will go there to escape the cold in winter, while 
thousands will flee from the hot interior to enjoy its 
cooling breezes in summer. 

The future of California will be very different from 
its past. It has been the land of large things — of large 
estates, of large enterprises, of large fortunes. Under 
another form of government it would have developed a 
feudal system, with a landed aristocracy resting on a 
basis of servile labor. Tliese were its plain tendencies 
years ago, when somebody coined the epigram, " Cali- 

159 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

fornia is the rich man's paradise and the poor man's 
hell." But later developments have shown that whatever 
of paradise the Golden State can offer to the rich, it 
will share, upon terms of marvellous equality, with the 
middle class of American life. Over and above all other 
countries, it is destined to be the land of the common 
people. This is true, because, owing to its peculiar cli- 
matic conditions, it requires less land to sustain a family 
in generous comfort. For the same reason, cheaper cloth- 
ing and shelter, as well as less fuel, suffice, while it is pos- 
sible to realize more perfectly the ideal of producing what 
is consumed. Moreover, it is a natural field for the ap- 
plication of associative industry and the growth of the 
highest social conditions. Indeed, the country has dis- 
tinctly failed as a land of big things, and achieved its 
best successes in the opposite direction. Its true and 
final greatness will consist of the aggregate of small 
things — of small estates, of small enterprises, of small 
fortunes. Progress towards this end is already well be- 
gun. It must go on until the last great estate is dis- 
membered and the last alien serf is returned to the 
Orient. Upon the ruins of the old system a better civili- 
zation will arise. It will be the glory of the common 
people, to whose labor and genius it will owe its exist- 
ence. Its outreaching and beneficent influence will be 
felt throughout the world. 



160 



CHAPTER II 
THE N'EW DAY IIST COLORADO 

The old day in Colorado was the era of frontier bar- 
barism. The glitter of Pike's Peak gold drew throngs 
of adventurous folk who toiled across the plains of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska in wagon-trains that they might spec- 
ulate in the mysterious possibilities of a new country. 
They were not home-builders, but fortune-hunters. 
Wherever they found placer gold rude settlements sprang 
up. 

In the mean time the cattle industry began to contend 
with Indians and buffalo for the possession of the grazing 
lands which sloped away from the Rockies, and the neces- 
sity of a base of supplies planted the seeds of a few per- 
manent towns, such as Denver and Pueblo. These were 
mere clusters of rude homes and stores which seemed to 
hold out scant promise of future importance. The In- 
dians were numerous and troublesome, and the life of 
the pioneers was spiced with danger. Though the coun- 
try belonged nominally to Kansas, there was but the 
slightest pretence of civil government. Practically the 
only authority was that exercised by organizations of cit- 
izens, who brought horse-thieves and murderers to speedy 
justice upon the most convenient tree. 

In 1861 Colorado became a Territory, and was then 
L 161 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

able to deal more effectively with the Indian, who was 
the common enemy and an obstacle to settlement and 
development. There was little in these early conditions 
to encourage the hope that a great and populous State 
could be established amid the mountains and plateaus. 
Mines, cattle, and border traffic were not alone sufficient 
for the making of civilization. Beyond these crude in- 
dustries the future was speculative. The country was 
unexplored, the resources undeveloped, the conditions 
untried. The transformation which swiftly followed 
upon this period of doubt converted the frontier commu- 
nity into one of the most brilliant and promising of 
American States. 

The dawn of the new day was heralded by the whistle 
of the locomotive. The dissolution of the Union armies 
had turned the faces of many thousand veterans towards 
the trans-Missouri region, and of these Colorado re- 
ceived its full share. The wonderful era of railroad- 
building — perhaps the most dramatic page in all our in- 
dustrial history — had just begun. These circumstances 
conspired to give a new and powerful impulse to the ter- 
ritory at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Large cap- 
ital joined hands with the increasing stream of immi- 
grants, and Colorado entered with amazing vigor upon a 
stage of real and far-reaching development. More im- 
^lortant than the finding of gold was the discovery of 
the fact that the highest forms of agriculture would 
flourish with the aid of irrigation. When this had been 
demonstrated by the pioneers there was no longer doubt 
about the future greatness of the State or the character 
of its civilization. Denver and a few other settlements 
began to take on the appearance of permanency, and 

162 



THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

even to exhibit the signs of coming refinement and 
power. 

The settlers of Greeley inaugurated large irrigation 
enterprises and planted seeds from which the finest civic 
institutions were to grow. General William J. Palmer 
and his friends, anticipating the commercial value of cli- 
mate and scenery even before the industrial economy of 
the community was established, laid out Colorado Springs, 
at the foot of Pike's Peak, and began to make Manitou 
and the Garden of the Gods ready for future thousands 
of health-seekers and tourists. Pueblo quickly felt the 
importance of its position on the banks of the Arkan- 
sas at the gateway of the mountains, and developed rap- 
idly in population and business. The daring conception 
of a railroad to parallel the Rockies and open communi- 
cation with Mexico, or to scale the giant peaks and 
penetrate the wilderness which lay beyond, took posses- 
sion of General Palmer's mind and furnished the hope 
of further extraordinary developments. 

Thus the decade between 1870 and 1880 saw the rise 
of Colorado to a place of immense promise and of im- 
portant achievement, and in 1876 the nation signalized 
the centennial of the Declaration of Independence by be- 
stowing the rich privilege of sovereignty upon the new- 
born commonwealth. 

The Colorado of to-day contains a population of 
more than half a million. It is marvellously fort- 
unate in its railroad development, having twenty-four 
separate lines, which maintain over five thousand miles 
of track, penetrating nearly every part of the State. Its 
mines of precious and base metals — very largely the 
former — yield an annual income of nearly fifty millions. 

163 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Its two million acres of irrigated land add forty millions 
more to the annual industrial product. Manufactures, 
including smelting and refining works, produce goods to 
the value of one hundred millions. Other business 
transactions, represented by the commercial and pro- 
fessional classes, represent considerably more than one 
hundred millions each year. The live-stock indus- 
try is difficult to estimate, but adds very largely to the 
yearly production of wealth. 

Such are the results wrought out by the labor of a 
single generation upon the raw resources of a new State. 
Before glancing at the people who have organized such 
an economic life in so brief a space of years, and at the 
institutions they have created, it is important to con- 
sider the material foundation on which they have built. 

Colorado owes something to its scenery, much to its 
climate, yet more to its mines. The first of these made 
it widely known as one of nature's wonderlands. The 
second was a prime factor in attracting population. 
The third poured a large and continuous stream of 
wealth into the hands of the people, and a little further 
on we shall see how loyally this has been used for the 
benefit of the State. The grandeur of the scenery and 
the charm of the climate are both matters of popular 
knowledge. Neither is peculiar to Colorado, for both 
are characteristic of the arid region as a whole. But 
nowhere else do the ordinary paths of travel lead 
through so grand a scenic region as in Colorado, nor has 
any other locality been as fortunate in the energy and 
intelligence bestowed upon the work of making this 
phase of its attractions widely and favorably known. 

The Colorado climate is the product of high altitude 

164 



THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

and aridity. Denver is one mile above the level of New 
York harbor, and mncli of the inhabited portion of the 
State is even higher. The result is a rarefied atmos- 
phere very exhilarating in its effects and extremely 
favorable to persons suffering with certain kinds of dis- 
eases. Summer and winter are almost equally de- 
lightful, though presenting great extremes of heat and 
cold. 

Of the mineral wealth it is needless to say more than 
that it increases its annual output with regularity, and 
that there is every reason to suppose that much the 
greater part of it yet remains to be discovered and de- 
veloped. It will be a permanent resource of the highest 
utility, since most of it is directly converted into money 
at the local mints. While the energies of the mining 
industry are chiefly centred upon the search for precious 
metals, the country is endowed with the greatest variety 
of mineral riches. These include nearly all the base 
metals, such as copper, lead, and iron, as well as coal, oil, 
precious and semi - precious stones, granite, marble, 
onyx, and sandstone. These materials exist in the great- 
est profusion, but must lie mostly unused until the pop- 
ulation largely increases. 

In considering the matter of agricultural development, 
it must be remembered that Colorado is the crown of 
the continent. Its lofty mountain-peaks cut the rain- 
fall and melting snows in twain, sending one part to the 
Pacific and the other to the Atlantic Ocean. The same 
influence makes a radical division in climate, produc- 
tions, and the character of agriculture. Irrigation devel- 
opment naturally began earliest where streams could 
most easily be diverted. This was on the high plateau 

165 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

which slopes eastward from the foot-hills and merges into 
the Great Plains of Nebraska and Kansas. 

For a period of nearly twenty years, beginning in 
1870, canal construction and the settlement of lands 
were actively carried on in this part of the State. The 
scene of action was principally in the valleys of the 
Cache la Poudre, the Platte, and the Arkansas. Here the 
farms are of large size for an irrigated region, though 
the present tendency favors a smaller unit. These dis- 
tricts have taken on a new growth of late, with the 
prosperity of the State and the country. The products 
are diversified and largely disposed of in the home 
market. In the upper Arkansas Valley, where the 
foot-hills furnish shelter from the high winds pre- 
vailing at certain seasons, fruit-culture has been notably 
successful. Prices of unimproved lands on the eastern 
slope range from twenty to fifty dollars per acre, wdiile 
cultivated lands are valued at one hundred dollars an 
acre and upwards, according to the extent of improve- 
ments and location with reference to cities or large 
towns. The glimpse we have had in an earlier chapter 
of the agricultural industry of Greeley Colony may be 
accepted as true of the entire region east of the moun- 
tains, for Greeley has been the model to which other 
districts have looked for inspiration. The experimental 
farms which surround the agricultural college at Fort 
Collins undoubtedly represent the highest type of irri- 
gation results in this part of the State. In the Arkansas 
Valley the altitude is lower and the climate more favor- 
able for small farming and fruit-culture. 

The San Luis Valley is an elevated plateau lying be- 
tween parallel mountain - ranges in the southern and 

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THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

central part of the State. Here a vast expenditure has 
been made for irrigation works, but the earlier efforts at 
settlement were disappointing. The explanation is not 
to be found in the altitude, which is from seven thousand 
to eight thousand feet above sea level, for the country 
makes a wonderful yield of grain and of vegetables, as 
well as of apples and small fruits. While it is true that 
many of the earlier settlers made failures through dif- 
ferent causes, yet there are instances of the greatest pros- 
perity on the part of others. Numerous experiments 
have demonstrated the adaptability of the soil to the 
raising of sugar beets, and it is probable that this valley 
will share with other portions of the State in the pros- 
perity attendant upon the beet sugar industry. A strik- 
ing example of prosperity is seen in the thriving com- 
munities of Mormons. The industrial system which we 
have already studied in connection with Utah produces 
the same good results in the San Luis Valley. In view 
of these facts it must be assumed that the locality will 
eventually be thickly settled and sustain thousands of 
prosperous people. Land and water may be obtained 
more cheaply here than anywhere else in Colorado and 
there is a good market for the products of the soil. The 
costly preliminary work of reclamation has been well 
done in advance. A labor colony, founded upon wise 
plans, backed by sufficient capital, and inspired and man- 
aged by skilful leadership, would solve the problem of col- 
onization for the San Luis Valley, while furnishing work 
and homes for those who need them. The Mormon com- 
munities are practically of this character in the beginning. 
The western slope of Colorado constitutes a region 
entirely distinct. From a casual glance at the map it 
would be inferred that about two-thirds of the State con- 

1G7 



THE CONQUEST OF AETD AMERICA 

sist exclusively of mountains, and are therefore unfitted 
for settlement. The truth is that there are many beau- 
tiful valleys of varying size and elevation, and that these 
are destined to sustain the most interesting and profit- 
able agricultural districts of Colorado. Unlike the east- 
ern slope, there is here more water than irrigable land — 
a condition almost unique in the arid region. The val- 
leys are so protected by the mountains which inclose 
them upon either hand as to have a climate of their own. 
This is perceptibly influenced by the warm winds which 
make their way from the Gulf of California through the 
canyons of the Colorado river. These conditions are 
extremely favorable for the culture of the most delicate 
fruit and for the diversification of general crops. The 
principal rivers of the western slope are the Grand, the 
Green, and the San Juan. These are fed by the prolific 
snows of the higher Rockies, and carry a strong and tur- 
bulent flow of water throughout the year. They are not 
always readily diverted, however, as their channels have 
been deeply cut through the rocks and soil, and the 
stream often flows below the level of the tract to be irri- 
gated. This makes it necessary to elevate the water in 
many instances by pumping machinery, which can be 
operated cheaply by the power of the stream itself, or 
by the use of coal, which in many cases is found close at 
hand. 

The best example of the possibilities of the western 
slope is seen in the neighborhood of Grand Junction, 
where two splendid streams — the Grand and the Gunni- 
son — join forces and flow westward to their meeting with 
the Green river across the Utah boundary. Here the 
valley opens out into a broad desert, with foot-hills, or 

168 



THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

mesas, marking the rise to the mountain masses which 
line the horizon on either hand. To the eye of the 
traveller who has just come through the awe-inspiring 
scenery of the mountains and narrow upper valleys, 
nothing could be less promising than the brown waste of 
arid soil which he beholds upon approaching Grand 
Junction. The scene is one of utter desolation, for even 
sage-brush and mesquite are absent from large portions 
of the landscape. The roaring river hurrying down the 
slope seems to mock, with hoarse laughter, the unfruitful 
soil, which stretches away from its banks in silence and 
in sunshine. But if the traveller leaves the train and 
rides out a few miles upon the desert he will quickly in- 
terpret the mystery of these conditions. Wherever the 
water has been married to the soil, prolific fields and 
orchards have sprung from the union — such fields and 
orchards as may be rivalled as yet only in semi-tropic 
California. The favorite size of farms is from ten to 
twenty acres, or only about one-fourth or one-eighth of 
the average area of farms on the eastern slope of Col- 
orado. 

Fruit-culture chiefly claims the thought and energy 
of the people in this locality, and it is very profitable. 
Peaches are the leading product, and they are wonderful 
for flavor, size, and beauty. A local festival is " Peach 
Day," when people come from all directions to feast 
upon the free bounty of Grand Junction. Lands are held 
high, ranging from fifty to one hundred and fifty dollars 
per acre, though they were but recently public property 
and of no value until irrigation facilities had been pro- 
vided. The excuse for these high prices is the fact that 
orchards in bearing frequently earn one hundred and fifty 

169 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

dollars and upwards per acre each year. This is due in 
part to the marvellous quality of the fruit, and in part 
to the extensive home markets offered by mining camps 
in the mountains, and by large towns such as Denver, 
Pueblo, and Colorado Springs. In view of the severe 
limitations which nature has placed upon the territory 
suited to the highest culture of delicate fruits, and of the 
steady growth of the consumers in mountain districts 
and large towns, there is, perhaps, good reason to hope 
that profits will be well sustained for a long time to 
come. 

These conditions make the western slope choice ground 
for settlement. They are by no means limited to the 
lower valley of the Grand, but exist in the numerous 
smaller districts scattered through the mountains in the 
western and southwestern part of the State. On the so- 
cial side the possibilities of the country have not been 
much developed, as there has been a lack of organized 
effort in settlement. But the extraordinary fertility of 
the soil, the extent of the water supply, the proximity of 
mining camps, and the charm of the climate must some- 
time combine to lend a powerful impulse to the highest 
development of these favored valleys. 

The scenery presents not merely pictures, but pictures 
that are painted and tinted and wrought into fantastic 
shapes. To the ever-changing aspect which the moun- 
tains, buttes, and tnesas gain from light and shadow, from 
sun and cloud, new and strange beauties are added by the 
reds, pinks, yellows, and grays of soil and rock. From 
the vivid cliffs and bluffs which stand guard upon river 
banks to the purple and shadowy peaks which lift their 
pointed heads on the utmost horizon, the scene is one of 

170 




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THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

such beauty aud grandeur as may be felt, though not de- 
scribed. 

Such are the materials of Colorado. Let us look now 
at the people and their civilization. 

Intense local patriotism is a well-recognized western 
trait, but in Colorado it amounts to a religion. We 
have seen how the progress of California was impeded 
by certain elements of its population having no sym- 
pathy with its higher ideals, no pride in its best achieve- 
ments. If there is such an element in Colorado it is 
unseen and unfelt in the larger life of the State. The 
community is dominated by a spirit of aggressive enter- 
prise which recognizes no impossibilities, harbors no 
doubts" of the future. This is the explanation of 
what we may fairly call — in view of the brief time con- 
sumed in its evolution from conditions essentially bar- 
baric — the splendor of Colorado civilization. It is this 
which created Denver, almost the fairest of American 
cities; which made Colorado Springs the centre of 
wealth and refinement ; which blackened the sky of Pu- 
eblo with the smoke of a young Pittsburg; Avhich 
planted Leadville among the clouds ; which placed a 
steam ladder against the dizzy summit of Pike's Peak ; 
which carried the iron highway of commerce through 
gorges and mountain -passes; which turned rivers out 
of their courses that barren soil might blossom with 
the homes of men. This high public spirit is seen in 
schools, colleges, clubs, public buildings, aud improve- 
ments — above all, in the homes. 

It has been the policy of those who have taken riches 
from the mines to invest them in developing the State's 
resources and in beautifying its cities and towns. In this 

171 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

respect the spirit of Coloradans presents a sharp con- 
trast to that of many who grew rich in California, and 
of most of those who received the enormous wealth coined 
from the resources of Nevada. In the latter instance 
the beneficiaries of the mines did not even make their 
homes in the land which raised them from poverty to afflu- 
ence. But the men of Colorado have been proud of 
their devotion to the commonwealth which they created, 
and have striven by every means in their power to keep 
it moving along the upward path. In the erection of 
fine public and business buildings and of palatial homes, 
in the extension of railroads and irrigation canals, in the 
increase of banking capital, and, above all, in the pursuit 
of daring mining operations, their enterprise has been un- 
equalled by that of any other western community. Fore- 
most among those who inaugurated this policy at the 
risk of their fortunes was the late H. A. W. Tabor, 
whom Denver and Colorado should always hold in grate- 
ful remembrance. 

But there is another side to the picture. The tenden- 
cies of Colorado civilization are not wholly in line with 
the best ideals of the arid region. Viewed from this 
stand-point, its institutions are in a measure disappoint- 
ing. The marvel of Denver's growth and the beauty 
of its homes and business districts should not blind us 
to the fact that it is essentially like the great cities of 
the East. It is, in a word, another case of ** progress 
and poverty," The equality which marked its early life 
has diminished in proportion to the growth of the popu- 
lation and the increase of wealth. The rise of land 
values has made it more difficult for the many to own 
their homes, and has increased the wealth of the land- 

173 



THE NEW DAY IN COLORADO 

lord class. All the evils which grow from the condi- 
tions of life in a large city are rife in Denver. 

These are not the natural economic tendencies of a 
country founded upon irrigation. They are not such as 
we have observed in localities where irrigation has been 
so nearly the dominant influence as to shape institu- 
tions. The explanation is found in the influence of 
mining speculations which^ diffused like the atmos- 
phere, breed a cheerful but demoralizing contagion : 
also in the early tendency to adopt a comparatively 
large farm unit. These two forces have operated to 
produce very different results from those flowing from 
the Mormon land policy, which we saw in the Salt Lake 
Valley; or from those which grew in consequence of irri- 
gation in the San Bernardino Valley of California. Large 
portions of Colorado are admirably adapted to the de- 
velopment of the best social conditions — of those condi- 
tions which make for a permanent and growing body of 
landed proprietors ; for the multiplication of little towns 
rather than a concentration of people in congested cen- 
tres ; for the application of the associative principle in 
connection with industrial and commercial affairs. It 
is gratifying to be able to record that the latter cur- 
rents of thought in Colorado seem to show the effects 
which might be expected to result from its environ- 
ment. 

More and more the State asserts its authority in the 
control of irrigation works and practice. The farm unit 
grows smaller, and intensive cultivation finds more fol- 
lowers. By enormous majorities the people pronounce 
in favor of party platforms which demand the public 
ownership of public utilities. Equal suffrage and the 

173 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

presence of women in the legislature mark the progres- 
sive temper of the body politic. On the whole, there is 
much reason to hope that the social achievement of the 
next generation in Colorado will be equal to the material 
achievement of the last. • 



174 



CHAPTER in 

THE PLEASANT LAND OF UTAH 

The indnstrial system of the people who compose 
three-fourths of the population of Utah has been con- 
sidered in connection with typical institutions of the 
arid region in earlier pages. It remains to speak of the 
physical aspects of the newest of American States. 

Standing on the summit of Capitol Hill in Salt Lake 
City, one may take in the entire range of Utah's re- 
sources, developed and undeveloped, in a single sweeping 
glance. 

At one's feet lies the mountain metropolis, with the 
stately temple of native granite supporting the golden 
figure of the Angel Moroni on its culminating turret, 
and beside it the odd-roofed tabernacle, like an enormous 
turtle basking in the sun. Below, the miles of city 
streets stretch southward — a huddle of business blocks 
in the centre ; a series of garden-homes hidden by leaves 
and blossoms on either hand. Still farther out the 
generous city lots expand into little farms of ten or 
twenty acres, exemplifying the prosperous irrigation in- 
dustry, which is the corner-stone of the commonwealth. 
Far down the valley the smelters send up their black 
smoke to the sky — emblem of the mining industry. At 
the lower end and on the sides of the valley lies an ex- 

175 



THE CONQUEST OF AKID AMERICA 

panse of arid land in its natural desert state, typifying 
alike the conditions encountered by the pioneers and 
the present aspect of a vast proportion of Utah. On 
the left, one sees hastening down the canyon the roaring 
creek which watered the first crop ever planted in these 
valleys; on the right, the glistening expanse of the 
famous inland sea. And inclosing all, the mountains — 
treasure-house of precious metals, of coal, of iron, of 
timber, and of the snows and waters which fertilized the 
desert and made it blossom with civilization. 

Here in a single picture is all of Utah — town and 
country, farm, workshop, mine, shrines of religion, and 
play-grounds of wealth and leisure. If the human eye 
might look beyond the brown barriers, which now inter- 
cept the view, to the very boundaries of the State, 
it would see nothing more than it sees from Capitol 
Hill, for Utah is a succession of mountains, of desert 
valleys, and of crystal streams, and scattered over it all is 
the wealth of the mine and the sleeping potentiality — 
here and there partially awakened — of the home, the 
field, the orchard, and the workshop. It is a pleasant 
and a sunny land, unforgotten by the most casual traveller 
who has crossed it and well loved by those who claim it 
as their home. It is easy to understand the feelings of 
the little Utah boy who tired of the World's Fair in a 
very few days and begged, with tears in his eyes, to be 
taken back. Asked if there were not plenty of interest- 
ing sights in Chicago, he replied, '' Yes, but I can't see 
no mountains !" 

Utah has a population of about a quarter of a million. 
Though this is but one-half as many as Colorado, and 
one-fifth as many as California, the new State approaches 

176 



THE PLEASA'NT LAND OF UTAH 

more nearly to the ideal of a self-supportiug community 
than either of its neighbors. The bulk of its pojjulation 
has been trained in the policy of industrial independence 
fiT,.ii the time of its earliest settlement. We have seen 
how' this was accomplished with little capital except that 
which was taken from the soil. The fortunate results 
may now be observed in an industrial life which is re- 
markably diversified for a community so new and remote. 

Very much the larger portion of the population may be 
seen ia a railroad ride of two hours, from Provo through 
Salt Lake City to Ogden. This ride takes the traveller 
through Utah, Salt Lake, and Weber valleys, which were 
the first to be reclaimed, and must always coutain the 
densest population. The original advantage of this now 
splendid district was its abundant water supply, flowing 
in numerous streams from high mountains near at hand. 
To this advantage later development added the presence 
of important railroad systems and the proximity of rich 
mines of precious metals. The growth of other portions 
of the State, which must be large and constant, can only 
confirm the supremacy of the communities which have 
grown up near the shores of the Great Salt Lake. These 
are alike the commercial, political, and religious centres 
of Utah, to which all the sources of material wealth must 
be tributary. 

The natural resources of Utah, as in the case of all the 
States of the mountain region, are wonderfully diverse, 
though in the infancy of development. The annual out- 
put of gold, silver, copper, and lead is now about ten 
million dollars, and is constantly increasing. The min- 
ing industry is thus a large contributor to local wealth, 
supplying employment to thousands of laborers, furnish- 
M 177 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ing a home market for the products of the farms, and 
giving constant encouragement to the extension of the 
railroad system. The work of discovery and develop- 
ment in new districts steadily progresses, and the eco- 
nomic value of mineral resources must grow with every 
passing year. Utah is somewhat deficient in forests 
suitable for timber, but is abundantly endowed with coal, 
iron, and water-power, which are the raw materials of 
manufacture. The development of water-power in con- 
nection with electricity has begun in earnest and will be 
a factor of high importance in the future. This is ac- 
complished by damming streams which flow through 
mountain canyons in the immediate neighborhood of 
large towns. This requires the transmission of electric- 
ity for a distance of only a few miles, owing to the fortu- 
nate natural conditions. The State is also rich in fine 
building stone, which includes beautiful marble and 
onyx. 

The climate of Utah is that of the milder temperate 
zone, and during large portions of the year is thoroughly 
delightful. Ploughing begins earlier than in eastern lo- 
calities of similar latitude. The spring days are showery 
and windy, but the first warm breath of approaching 
summer is usually felt by the last of April. From May 
until November there is little rain. The thermometer 
climbs high during the summer days, but the heat is not 
oppressive, owing to the dryness of the air. Mountain 
breezes, sweeping down through the numerous canyons, 
make the nights delightfully cool. In Utah it is the 
custom to run irrigation waters through the streets of 
cities and towns during the summer, and the music of 
these numerous babbling streams is a pleasant feature 

178 



THE PLEASANT LAND OF UTAH 

of the country, and apparently of considerable effect in 
mitigating the heat. The long autumn, extending fre- 
quently into December, is the most charming season of 
the year. The winter is usually brief, but accompanied 
by considerable snow even in the valleys and a very 
heavy precipitation in the surrounding mountains. On 
still nights the thermometer sometimes goes well below 
zero. The extreme southern portion of the State, loc- 
ally known as ''Dixie," is much milder, indeed verg- 
ing upon the semi-tropical, and permitting the culture 
of figs, almonds, and English walnuts. 

The agricultural industry of Utah presents some odd 
contradictions. It is more diversified, and therefore 
more completely self-sustaining, than that of any other 
western State. Farms are smaller and less incumbered 
with mortgages, and the people may be said to live gen- 
erally in easier circumstances than the occupants of the 
soil in any other part of the United States. 

On the other hand, it is not here that we find the best 
methods of irrigation and cultivation, nor of packing and 
marketing the crops. The high intelligence and persis- 
tent effort which placed certain communities in Colorado 
and California at the head of the list in their respective 
lines of production are wanting in Utah. The fruit pos- 
sibilities of the country have been especially neglected 
until recently, so that newly settled portions of Idaho 
have easily surpassed Utah localities which had the ad- 
vantage of more than a generation in time. Of late 
years there has been a marked improvement, resulting 
from a State Board of Horticulture, from the influence 
of the Agricultural College at Logan, and from the in- 
fusion of a considerable element of new settlers. 

179 



THE COX QUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

Over half a million acres of irrigated land are in actual 
cultivation, while nearly twice that number are under 
canals now completed or in process of construction. 
Nearly one hundred thousand acres are cultivated in 
grain crops without irrigation. These are mostly sit- 
uated north of the Great Salt Lake, where the rainfall 
is heaviest. The total amount of cultivated land is, 
however, only about one per cent, of the area of the 
State. According to the best local authorities, some- 
thing like six times as much land as is now irrigated 
can be brought under cultivation by these methods when 
the water supply is utilized. Here is a large field for 
the growth of population. 

The territory available for settlement is well dis- 
tributed throughout the State. The country immedi- 
ately surrounding the three large towns of Ogden, Salt 
Lake, and Provo is compactly settled, yet better meth- 
ods of utilizing the water supply will enlarge the area of 
cultivation even in those districts. The beautiful coun- 
try lying immediately north of Great Salt Lake, and 
watered by one of the largest irrigation systems in the 
"West, is still largely open to settlement. Here the frnit 
industry is rapidly developing in connection with gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising. In this locality unim- 
proved lands sell for prices ranging from thirty to fifty 
dollars per acre, while the annual water - rental is two 
dollars and a half per acre. The construction of new 
irrigation systems in the large deserts south of the lake, 
in central Utah, has been actively carried on during the 
past five years. Here much government land is open to 
entry, but the settler must purchase water-i'ights from 
canal companies. This item of cost should be added to 

180 







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THE PLEASANT LAND OF UTAH 

the price of the land. In this locality unimproved lands 
with water cost from ten to thirty dollars per acre. The 
raising of grain and hay is profitable because of the de- 
mand which the stock industry furnishes for these prod- 
ucts, while the culture of peaches, apricots, apples, and 
prunes seems promising. These fruits have been raised 
successfully for forty years in the more sheltered valleys 
and foot-hills of central Utah, and the later orchards are 
being gradually extended farther out upon the desert. 

For years settlers, miners, and speculators have looked 
with eager eyes to the Uinta country, surrounded by the 
mountains of that name and lying directly east of Salt 
Lake City. Here a great Indian reservation has been 
thrown open to settlement. The opening of this new 
district was the occasion of a rush of land-hungry people, 
in which the Mormons took a conspicuous part. They 
will undoubtedly apply their well-known successful meth- 
ods of colonization in such localities as they are able to 
control. Settlers will be organized into companies con- 
structing their own canals by combined labor and divid- 
ing the farms and village lots under an equitable arrange- 
ment. The Uinta country is rich, not only in agri- 
cultural land, hut in minerals, timber, building stone, 
asphalt, and other useful resources. Its value has long 
been appreciated, but railroad facilities were lacking. 
Tliese will now be supplied by a new line building west 
from Denver. Several towns are certain to spring up 
and attain importance at an early day. The deserts of 
eastern Utah within reach of the Green Eiver, and in 
southern Utah in the neighborhoods of the Colorado and 
Virgin Elvers, have but begim to feel the influence of 

181 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

modern enterprise. The costly works necessary to their 
reclamation will doubtless come as the pressure of settle- 
ment increases. 

Utah's pre-eminence in the land of irrigation is due to 
historical considerations rather than to the excellence of 
its canal systems or to the superiority of its laws and 
customs. In the latter respect it is distinctly disappoint- 
ing. The pioneers turned the water from the most con- 
venient streams by the crudest devices, and with no 
thought for any grand and enduring scheme of engineer- 
ing. Canals were often duplicated many times over in a 
single valley, wasting precious water, injuring the soil, 
and unnecessarily restricting the area of settlement. The 
evils of the irrigation system hastily constructed by the 
pioneers are now seen and felt ; yet the early appropri- 
ators of the mountain streams are so tenacious of what 
they consider their rights as to render the reform of the 
laws, the reconstruction of canals, and the readjustment 
of irrigation customs to meet the conditions imposed by 
the pressure of population, extremely difficult. Efforts 
to establish a plan of State supervision which would pro- 
vide for the measuring of water and its just apportion- 
ment among irrigators — a system which is the first and 
last essential of peace and progress in an arid land — have 
been repeatedly frustrated by the unreasoning jealousy 
of the older settlers. In recent years, however, this oppo- 
sition has yielded to higher conceptions and Utah now 
has a good administrative system which is gradually 
reconstructing the basis of its water rights. 

For fully forty years Utah irrigation was held in the 
hands of small local companies composed exclusively of 
the land-owners. Works were built by the common labor 

182 



THE PLEASANT LAND OF UTAH 

of the community, and the repairs and improvements 
made in the same way. The first important departure 
from this policy came witli the construction of the bold 
and expensive canals of the Bear Eiver Irrigation Com- 
pany, which have reclaimed a large area lying between 
the Great Salt Lake and the Idaho boundary. These 
works also supply domestic water to tlie city of Ogden 
and furnish power for electrical purposes. The Bear 
river canal is one of the most notable works of en- 
gineering in the United States, ranking at least second, 
if not first, among irrigation systems in this respect. 
Not far from two million dollars of eastern and foreign 
capital is invested in the enterprise. The work ex- 
hibits almost every phase of irrigation — engineering, 
including canals cut into solid canyon walls, tun- 
nelled through mountain sides, as well as iron flumes 
and notable diverting dams. Other private water sys- 
tems followed the Bear river development. The most 
important of these are the storage enterprises at 
Mount Nebo and in the neighborhood of Sevier lake. 
Both of these utilize the flood waters of the Sevier 
river, which is one of the largest streams in the 
State. 

No other community in the West will deal with more 
interesting irrigation problems in the future than Utah. 
The conflicts between the policies of public and private 
ownership cannot be avoided, since both are represented 
in systems which lie side by side. In districts where 
settlement is furthest advanced and canal systems the 
oldest, the crying necessity for the reconstruction of 
works and the application of a rigid public supervision 
must soon be answered. Coincident with the settle- 

183 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ment of these questions will be the gradual evolution of 
better agricultural and horticultural methods. 

The construction of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & 
Salt Lake Railroad, familiarly known as " the Clark 
Road," is the most important event in Utah history since 
the building of the Union Pacific system. It will open 
a large mineral, agricultural, and stock region south of 
Salt Lake to rapid development. But its influence will 
be much more than local, for it makes a long desired con- 
nection between the intermountain region and the coast 
of southern California. It would be difficult to imagine 
a more perfect interchange of natural products than that 
which is now feasible by means of this line. The semi- 
tropical regions of the south need the variety of things 
which are produced in the higher altitudes and colder 
climate of the north. There will also be a natural inter- 
change of people between the two localities, the northern- 
ers seeking California in winter and the southerners 
availing themselves of the mountain resorts of Utah, 
Colorado, Idaho, and Montana, in the summer season. 

Enormous improvements in the Central Pacific and 
Union Pacific system, including the construction of the 
celebrated Lucin Cut-off across Great Salt Lake, occurred 
almost simultaneously with the construction of Senator 
Clark's road to Southern California. 



184 



CHAPTER IV 
THE CRUDE STRENGTH OF IDAHO 

Two travellers crossing Idaho on the same day, one by 
the Northern Pacific and the other by the Oregon Short 
Line, would receive quite opposite impressions of the 
country. The one who had traversed its northern end 
would think of Idaho as a land of dense forests mir- 
rored in the surfaces of beautiful lakes, of narrow val- 
leys presenting but meagre scope for agriculture, of 
abundant verdure, and of Alpine scenery. These condi- 
tions suggest nothing except the lumber-camp, the mine, 
and the stock-range. 

The traveller who crossed the southern part of the 
State, on the other hand, would receive the impression 
of an arid land, Avith wide stretches of valley and plain 
covered with wild grasses or sage-brush, alternating with 
curious formations of rock and lava. This traveller 
would understand how a large agricultural population 
may be maintained by turning the abundant water of the 
streams upon the rich valley soils. Both of these im- 
pressions of the resources of the great inland State of 
the Pacific Northwest would be true, but either of them 
taken alone, as is often done by travellers, would be 
quite inadequate. The fact is that Idaho, perhaps even 
more than other localities in the Far West, presents a 

185 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

marvellous diversity of soil, of climate, and of natural 
endowments. This diversity must necessarily mark its 
future industrial life and be reflected in the social side 
of its civilization. 

The first important item in the material wealth of 
Idaho is its water supply. Along its eastern boundary 
nature has piled up towering mountain-ranges, which re- 
ceive an enormous snowfall. These mountains are cov- 
ered with forests, ranking among the most magnificent 
in the world, which treasure the snow within their som- 
bre depths until the warm weather gradually sends it 
down to streams which reach out through hundreds of 
miles of lower valleys. The great river of Idaho is the 
Snake, which deserves a better name in spite of its tortu- 
ous meanderings. This is the largest tributary of the 
Columbia, and drains a vast water-shed, beginning in the 
Yellowstone Park of Wyoming and including all of 
southern and much of western Idaho with eastern Ore- 
gon and AVashington. Along its course it receives nu- 
merous minor streams which drain interior mountain sys- 
tems. The Snake is nearly one thousand miles long and 
so deep that in some places soundings of two hundred 
and forty feet have failed to find the bottom. While 
incalculably valuable for irrigation, this is by no means 
its only utility. It is navigable for one hundred and fifty 
miles above its junction with Clark's Fork in the north- 
ern part of the State, and may sometime furnish a 
water route to the Pacific Ocean through the Columbia. 
It also has immense possibilities in the way of power, 
which are now being rapidly developed for the production 
of electricity, and to furnish light, heat, and power to a 
number of growing towns. 

186 



THE CRUDE STRENGTH OF IDAHO 

The most marvellons of these water-powers is furnished 
by the Great Slioshone Falls, in the south-central por- 
tion of the State. Here is a waterfall scarcely inferior 
in power and grandeur to Niagara, and, like the latter, 
destined to be an important economic factor in the re- 
gion within its reach. The abundant water supply is 
by no means limited to the splendid valleys in the 
southern part of the State. It is found in hundreds 
of mountain streams throughout the central portion, and, 
in the narrow district which tapers northward to the Brit- 
ish Columbia line, is so marked a feature of the land- 
scape as to impress the most casual observer. Here 
Clark's Fork of the Columbia, draining the Bitter Root 
mountains in western Montana, is a stream of noble 
proportions. Lakes Pend Oreille and Coeur d'Alene 
are among the most notable of inland waters, both in 
beauty and extent. But these northern streams will not 
be used extensively for irrigation, as there is consider- 
able rainfall and comparatively little agricultural land. 
They are valuable, however, in connection with mining, 
lumbering, and water-power. 

The forest area of Idaho includes seven million acres, 
and the principal native trees are fir, spruce of the 
white, red, and black varieties, scrub oak, yellow and 
white pine, mountain mahogany. Juniper, tamarack, 
bircli, Cottonwood, alder, and willow. Some of the 
large forest regions, notably that of the Pend d'Oreille 
in the north, are almost unexplored, and constitute the 
wildest parts of the continent. Naturally, a country so 
well wooded and watered is the home of fish and game 
of the rarest kinds. The mineral resources are well dis- 
tributed and diversified to the last degree. The annual 

187 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

output of precious metals now amounts to over twenty- 
one millions. Gold was discovered in 1860 and mining 
is still the industry of first importance. The popular ex- 
citement over the Thunder Mountain mines in 1901 is 
still remembered. The chief products are gold, silver, 
copper, and lead, and there are reduction works for the 
treatment of these ores employing a large population. 
Base metals, precious stones, and building materials, in- 
cluding fine marble, exist in abundance. 

Idaho lies wholly in the temperate zone, yet its climate 
presents a great variety of features. In the larger por- 
tion of its territory, which consists of mountains and 
elevated valleys, the winter is a season of considerable 
severity. Here the thermometer registers far below 
zero, though the days are rendered comfortable by a dry 
atmosphere and abundant sunshine. 

Southern and western Idaho differ materially from the 
eastern, central, and northern districts. The altitude 
ranges from two thousand to four thousand feet. While 
there are occasional instances of a temperature twelve 
degrees below zero, the winter in this part of the State 
is really short and mild, being influenced by the Chinook 
winds, which make their way from the Pacific over a 
distance of five hundred miles. Spring opens early and 
is apt to be windy. The summer temperature is high, 
though the nights are invariably cool. The almost com- 
plete absence of rain between spring and late autumn 
makes the best conditions for irrigation, though it also 
involves dry roads and clouds of dust when the wind is 
high. 

Of the healthfulness of Idaho, it is enough to say that 

188 



THE CRUDE STEENGTH OF IDAHO 

it shows the smallest percentage of deaths of any State 
or Territory in the Union. This is not only the official 
record of the population as a whole, but it is the showing 
of the Army statistics, which furnish a better test, be- 
cause the conditions of life in that service are remarkably 
even throughout the countrj'-. 

Idaho has been called " the Baby State," and in certain 
respects it seems like a lusty infant, or perhaps now 
more like an adolescent youth, whose character is just 
forming. Already there have been four periods in its 
history. The first was that of the explorer, when Lewis 
and Clark, and later Bonneville, came to look over the 
country and report upon its possibilities. The second was 
that of the trapper, when the Hudson Bay Company es- 
tablished its supremacy after a brief struggle with Ameri- 
can hunters. The third was that of the missionary, who 
as early as 1836 established the first feeble beginnings 
of civilization, and then pushed westward for the con- 
quest of Oregon. The fourth was that of the miner, who 
gained a lasting foothold among the mountains and 
along the streams. The fifth era is now in progress, and 
has been, after a fashion, since the early sixties. This 
is the era of agricultural settlement and of town-building. 
It amounted to little until the railroads were built across 
the northern and southern extremities of the State, and 
until enterprise was attracted by the possibilities of irri- 
gation. Agriculture is still second in importance to 
mining, and is hard pressed by stock raising; but it is a 
vigorous and growing interest. 

With an area larger than Kew York and Maine com- 
bined, and almost equal to the combined area of Pennsyl- 

189 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

vania and Ohio, Idaho had a population of only 161,772 
by the last census, although it had increased ninety-one 
per cent, between 1890 and 1900, and is still rapidly 
growing. The State has twenty-one thousand farms, 
covering five million acres, and worth two hundred mil- 
lion dollars. The astonishing fertility of the soil is 
shown by the fact that the average value of the yield per 
acre of agricultural products in Idaho is nearly double 
that for the whole United States. The grand prize for 
the best display of agricultural products at the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition in 1904, was awarded to Idaho, be- 
sides seventeen gold medals, fourteen silver medals, and 
twenty-two bronze medals, to individual exhibitors from 
the State. The chief agricultural product is alfalfa, 
which yields from five to nine tons per acre on irrigated 
land. Red clover is also a favorite crop, and wheat, 
oats, barley, and potatoes are largely cultivated and yield 
good returns. The cultivation of sugar beets has made 
great progress since 1903, when the first large factory 
was erected at Idaho Falls. Since then, three more 
factories have been built, and the industry is now finnly 
established and will unquestionably continue to grow in 
volume and importance. 

The horticultural interests of Idaho promise soon to 
take a place of leading importance. Apples, pears, and 
prunes are most raised, in the order named. Six million 
fruit tree?, half in bearing, and half of them apples, 
cover fifty thousand acres of orchards. Peaches, plums, 
apricots, nectarines, cherries, and grapes also flourish. 
The solid silver lo\dng-cup given by Senator William A. 
Clark, to be awarded by the Eleventh National Irrigation 

190 



THE CRUDE STRENGTH OF IDAHO 

Congress at Ogden, Utah, in 1903, for the best dis- 
play of irrigation-grown fruits, was won by an exhibit 
from the New Plymouth Colony, in the Payette Valley, 
Idaho. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the gold 
medal for the best display of fruits was won by Idaho, 
besides many awards to individual exhibitors. The 
prunes of Idaho are famous, and won the first prize at 
the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. The apple 
crop is of excellent quality and very profitable. Eastern 
experts noted with surprise at Chicago that the Yellow 
Ne^vton Pippins were " twice as large as the same apple 
grown in the Hudson River Valley " of New York. 

The greatest irrigation development in Idaho hereto- 
fore has occurred in the upper Snake River Valley. The 
sixteen southern counties have a total of 3577 miles of 
canals and ditches, costing nearly ten million dollars and 
covering 2,108,095 acres, of which 835,115 are cultivated. 
The large canals are owned by private companies and 
usually represent Eastern capital. 

The most notable colony yet made on the irrigated 
lands of Idaho is that of New Plymouth, in the Payette 
Valley, twelve miles from the town of Payette. This 
colony, organized in the spring of 1895 by William E. 
Smythe and Benjamin P. Shawhan, was intended to 
represent a high social and industrial ideal. The initial 
work of enlisting settlers and public interest for the 
undertaking was done in Boston, with the aid of Dr. 
Edward Everett Hale and other prominent men, but most 
of the actual colonists were from Chicago and the Middle 
West. The pioneers of New Plymouth, who represented 
a rather unusual quality of settlers, were drawn princi- 

191 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

pally from urban business and professional life, yet 
entered enthusiastically and successfully upon the work 
of making homes on sage-brush land twelve miles from a 
railroad, in a remote and undeveloped part of the West. 

The Plymouth industrial programme aimed at com- 
plete economic independence of the people by the simple 
method of producing the variety of things consumed, on 
small, diversified farms; of having surplus products, 
principally fruit, for sale in home and Eastern markets; 
and by combining the capital of the settlers, by incor- 
poration of a stock-company, to own and develop the 
town-site, and to erect and operate simple industries re- 
quired in connection with the products of the soil. On 
the social side, the plan aimed to give these farmers the 
best advantages of town life, or at least of neighborhood 
association. This was accomplished by assembling the 
houses in a central village, laid out, in accordance with a 
beautiful plan, with residences grouped on an outside 
circle touching the farms at all points. This plan 
brought the settlers close together on acre-lots — " home- 
acres " — thus preventing isolation, and giving them 
the benefit of school, church, post-office, store, library, 
and entertainments. 

The Plymouth settlers have been contented and pros- 
perous from the first, and have had less than the usual 
share of early trials and disappointments. They testify 
that the social advantages of the colony plan, as com- 
pared with the drawbacks of individual and isolated 
settlement, are alone sufficient to warrant its use. Avail- 
ing themselves of a favorable opportunity, they acquired 
the irrigation system and other valuable property by 

192 



THE CEUDE STEENGTH OF IDAHO 

purchase from the Eastern bondholders, on terms which 
went far to enrich them as a community. 

A great stimulus has recently been given to the re- 
clamation of arid lands, especially in the lower Snake 
River Valley, by the operation of the " Carey Act." Al- 
ready a third of a million acres of public land have been 
withdrawn from settlement and turned over to the State 
Land Board for reclamation under this law. The Board 
has entered into agreements with several companies for 
the construction of irrigation works, to redeem tracts of 
this land ranging from six thousand to two hundred and 
forty-four thousand acres. 

Under the liberal provisions of this law, the Nation 
gives the land to the State on condition that it be re- 
claimed, and the State sells it to actual settlers at the 
nominal price of fifty cents per acre, in tracts limited to 
one hundred and sixty acres for each settler, on condi- 
tions of actual residence and improvement and that the 
settlers shall repay the construction company the cost 
of the works. This cost is agreed upon in advance by 
the State Land Board and the construction companies, 
and ranges from ten to twenty-five dollars per acre. 
Easy tenns of payment are arranged, sometimes as much 
as ten years time beinor allowed. 

The most important project under the ^' Carey Act " 
is that of the Twin Falls Land & Water Company, said to 
be the largest private irrigation enterprise in America. 
It will reclaim two hundred and forty-four thousand 
acres of land lying south of the Snake River and thirty 
thousand acres on its north side. The headworks are 
at Twin Falls, at the head of the Grand Canyon of the 
N 193 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

Snake Eiver, where the new town of Milner has sprung 
up. The main canal has a length of nearly seventy miles, 
and ends at the Canyon of the Salmon Eiver. The 
" Minidoka Project," now under construction by the 
National Eeclamation Service and elsewhere described 
in this book, is situated fifty miles up stream from Twin 
Falls. Work on the Twin Falls project was begun in 
March, 1903, and water was turned into the canals just 
two years later. The land has been rapidly taken up 
and crops are already growing under the canals. The 
immense dams at the headworks are 1900 feet long, 
from 60 to 76 feet high, and raise the normal level of 
the river forty-nine feet. The gates and spillways, con- 
structed in the rocky islands of the river, are marvels of 
engineering skill. The main canal is 80 feet wide on the 
bottom, 112 feet at the surface of the water, and carries 
a stream 10 feet deep. There will be nearly a thousand 
miles of canals and laterals in the system. Gasoline 
launches are to be put upon the main canal to carry 
passengers and freight. The total cost of the works will 
exceed two million dollars. 

The prices of land in Idaho naturally vary greatly with 
location and conditions. Unimproved and unirrigated 
lands can be had at nominal prices. Improved lands 
without water bring from five to twenty dollars per acre. 
Lands reclaimed under the " Carey Act " cost, with a 
permanent water right, from ten to twenty-five dollars. 
Where the reclamation work is being done by the Govern- 
ment, the cost per acre is estimated at twenty-six dollars. 
Unimproved lands under existing private canals bring 
from twenty to fifty dollars per acre, and improved irri- 

194 



THE CEUDE STRENGTH OF IDAHO 

gated lands are worth from forty to two hundred dollars 
or more. 

While the chief agricultural and horticultural districts 
of the State lie along the Snake Eiver and its important 
tributaries, the mountains of central Idaho are full of 
picturesque, well-watered valleys, in which settlement 
has been made for more than a generation. In these high 
altitudes, however, production is limited to hardy crops 
and runs largely to hay and grain, which find a market in 
the surrounding mining and lumbering camps and stock 
ranches. The Nez Perce Indian Reservation is a fertile 
and promising country, though the Indians have been 
located in severalty on some of the most desirable lands, 
which would otherwise be open to settlers. A consider- 
able locality in the northern part of the State, known as 
" the Palouse Country," is farmed in grain without irri- 
gation. The same is true of the Gammas Prairie, in one 
of the central counties. But Idaho is substantially an 
arid region and its characteristic institutions are grow- 
ing up where irrigation has been supplied. The ultimate 
development of its diversified resources will give it a 
many-sided economic life. 

Each of the early sources of Idaho's growth left its 
driftwood along the slender stream of the State's de- 
velopment. The '^ old-timer " is an influential element 
in its citizenship. Later comers, perhaps forgetting the 
distance which has been covered since the days of the 
primeval wilderness, and, in their impatience for prog- 
ress, inclined to belittle the hardy heroism which made 
it possible, sometimes complain that the "old-timers " 
are content to live in the memory of "the early days" 

195 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

while contributing little, either of enthusiasm or capital, 
to further development. The obvious truth is that differ- 
ent classes of people are required for different classes of 
work. If the men who filled the role of pioneers are not 
well suited by tastes and temperament to solve the prob- 
lems involved in the evolution of a complex industrial 
life, it is doubtless equally true that the element which 
enters enthusiastically and intelligently upon this later 
work would not have dealt as successfully with the 
harsher conditions of thirty-five years ago. It is true, 
however, that there are two well-defined classes in the 
citizenship of the Northwest, and that they represent 
different ways of thinking. The steady growth of popu- 
lation in Idaho has already given the supremacy to those 
who are trying to put the farm in place of the desert, to 
develop the best methods of fruit-culture, to bring the 
irrigation system under rigid public supervision, and to 
establish the highest standards in political and social 
life. 



196 



CHAPTER V 

THE GIANT WASHINGTON 

Washington is one of the big States of the West — big 
in resources and potentialities — and big in its yearning 
for the surplus man. In thinking of its future, it is 
difficult for the human imagination to set bounds to its 
development. It is blest in the possession of everything 
which goes to the making of a complete industrial, social, 
and political organism. Anywhere else than in the 
United States it would be considered amply sufficient 
for the sustenance of a nation. Its resources are wonder- 
ful alike in richness and in variety. Even its climate 
presents as many diversities as the entire Atlantic Coast 
Line, from Eastport to Savannah. If there be such a 
thing as a psychological influence arising from location 
and from proximity to the seat of events, and affecting 
the destiny and character of communities, then that in- 
fluence is operative in Washington. 

The State is fortunate not only in having a strategic 
location and marvellous natural resources, but in being 
able to command the interest and support of the large 
capital which is essential to enable it to take fullest ad- 
vantage of these facts. It has been the beneficiary of 
the most daring and aggressive railroad enterprise from 
the beginning of its development. This has enabled its 
principal cities promptly to become the commercial cen- 

197 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

tres of the rich agricultural, mining, and timber districts 
which lie behind them. The sudden birth of Alaska as 
a new and powerful economic quantity found Washing- 
ton able to respond instantly and adequately to the new 
demands. The opening of China and other Oriental 
markets to American products again found Washington 
able to rise to its opportunity, this time with a fleet of 
the largest freight steamers in the world. If mere pos- 
session of rare natural advantages made cities, with 
thrifty, growing surroundings, then many localities now 
silent and stagnant would long since have assumed im- 
portance in relation to the commerce of the world. But 
natural advantages are not' alone sufficient — they must 
be quickened into life and productiveness in order to 
count largely in the making of wealth and the support 
of communities. Washington owes very much to the 
men of daring enterprise and enormous financial re- 
sources who stretched lines of steel from Puget Sound 
to the Great Lakes and who, refusing to stop at the 
shore-line, utilized the free highway of the sea that the 
markets of Alaska and the Orient might be opened to the 
trade of this young commonwealth. 

In the decade covered by the last census, Washington 
increased its population forty-five per cent., notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the larger portion of the period fell in 
hard times, when some mushroom cities and towns actu- 
ally declined with the recession of the boom. Its present 
total of a little more than half a million represents a mere 
squad of people compared with the vast army who will 
ultimately be sustained in the varied industrial life of 
the State. That is to say, Washington is in its infancy 

198 



THE GIANT WASHINGTON 

and must inevitably enjoy constant growth, which will 
accelerate as time goes on. This will be due in part to 
its own natural wealth and in part to its fortunate loca- 
tion, which makes it the commercial partner of Alaska, 
of the Orient, and of Northwest Canada in what promises 
to be the most stirring era of material and commercial 
development which the world has ever seen. 

Puget Sound is one of Washington's priceless posses- 
sions. It is not merely a harbor, but a beautiful inland 
sea, sometimes, and not inappropriately, referred to as 
"the American Mediterranean." Coal, iron, and timber 
are abundant, and the shores of the Sound must in time 
be lined with a great variety of the most substantial 
industries. Those already well established include the 
manufacture of timber and lumber products, of flour and 
grist mill products, the canning and preserving of fish, 
copper smelting and refining, the manufacture of iron 
and steel products, and of paper and wood pulp. Manu- 
facture is, however, only in its initial stages. Its future 
expansion, with the attendant growth in mercantile, 
banking, and professional lines, will absorb many surplus 
men. But here, as in all the other new States of the Far 
West, the conquest of the soil will make the largest de- 
mand for future recruits. 

Like Oregon, Washington presents some sharp con- 
trasts in climatic conditions. On the coast the rainfall 
is excessive, resulting in a dense growth of natural vege- 
tation, including valuable forests. The extreme eastern 
portion of the State, while receiving much less rain, is 
also able to produce large and fairly regular crops with- 
out artificial moisture. But the central valleys, lying 

199 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

between the Cascade and Bitter Root Mountains, belong 
distinctly to the arid region. Here irrigation produces 
wonderful results. The Yakima Valley is the leading ex- 
ample of irrigation development in Washington. It is 
one of the few places in the West where water is rela- 
tively more abundant than land and, consequently, where 
there need be no limitation upon growth by reason of 
lack of moisture. The Columbia River flows in a deeply 
eroded channel and far below the level of fertile land 
which could be made immensely productive with irriga- 
tion. It will be the labor of some future generation to 
utilize such opportunities when, with growing density of 
population and increase of land value, it will be econo- 
mically profitable to do many things wdiich are now im- 
practicable. In the meantime, streams which may be 
diverted readily and cheaply upon the rich lands of the 
valleys through which they flow, abundantly demonstrate 
the economic significance of irrigation in Washington. 
And chief of such streams is the Yakima. 

All students of Western resources agree that the irri- 
gated farms of central and eastern Washington are 
among the most prosperous to be found in the West. 
They are such, to begin with, because of the large and 
regular water supply which has already been noted. 
The soil, largely of volcanic ash, is rich, deep, and easily 
worked. The climate and range of products are most 
favorable, while the home markets are peculiarly attract- 
ive. These latter include not merely the cities of Puget 
Sound, with their growing export trade, but the great 
mining camps of British Columbia, Montana, and north- 
ern Idaho. The vegetables and small fruits of the 

200 



THE GIANT WASHINGTON 

Yakima country are only about three weeks later than 
those of California. These early products command 
ready sale at fancy prices in the mining districts, which 
are reached by direct lines of transportation. From the 
heart of Yakima Valley to Rossland, British Columbia, 
is but eighteen hours ; to the Coeur d'Alene of Idaho, but 
twenty hours; to the great mining towns of Montana, 
but twenty-four hours. This matter of early products, 
good transportation facilities, and large home markets 
is a consideration of highest importance to settlers. It 
enables them to reap early and large reward from their 
labor, since crops which may be harvested the very first 
season after planting sell at good prices under these 
favorable conditions. It is sometimes possible for set- 
tlers to pay for their land in a single year. In the absence 
of any one of the three factors which have been men- 
tioned, this could not be done. 

The growth of population in the irrigated districts has 
been large and rapid during the past few years. This 
has been materially influenced by the Alaska boom, a 
circumstance which supplies an admirable illustration of 
the peculiar advantages of Washington. In his speech 
at Seattle, President Roosevelt predicted that one of the 
largest and most prosperous American States would 
grow up in Alaska. Washington is the nearest agricul- 
tural field, under the American flag, to that great north- 
em Territory which can never produce most of the food 
products which it must so largely consume. This fact 
has enormous significance in relation to the future pros- 
perity of the irrigated valleys of the Columbia and its 
tributaries. Their orchards will furnish dried fruits, 

201 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

their gardens vegetables, their alfalfa fields cattle, pigs, 
and their products, to be shipped in large and ever-in- 
creasing quantities to the inhabitants of the Frozen 
North, The peaches, prunes, and apples of this locality 
are especially fine and well adapted, when dried or pre- 
served, to the demands of the export trade. Dairying 
and poultry-raising are also profitably carried on here. 
For all these reasons, it is perfectly safe to predict that 
many people will find attractive opportunities to partici- 
pate in the making of irrigated Washington. 

The climate of this extreme northwestern State is fre- 
quently misunderstood at the East. As in the case of 
California and Oregon, so also in Washington, we find 
that northern latitude has little or no significance in re- 
lation to summer and winter temperature. Indeed, 
Washington rejoices in the soubriquet, '' The Evergreen 
State." When one crosses the continent by the most 
northern transcontinental route, through the rigors of 
the Canadian winter, the infiuence of the Japanese cur- 
rent and its famous chinook winds is felt the moment 
one begins to pass down the western slope of the Rockies, 
into British Columbia. And in January or February 
one need not be surprised to look upon green lawns in 
Victoria and Vancouver. The Puget Sound region must 
plead guilty to one climatic indiscretion — it drizzles per- 
sistently, month in and month out, during the winter 
season. That is, it drizzles when it does not rain " right 
smart." Gray skies are characteristic of the North Pa- 
cific coastline. On the other hand, nothing could be 
more delightful than the many clear and beautiful days 
which the Puget Sound region does enjoy in the course 

203 



THE GIANT WASHINGTON 

of a year. Then the waters of the inland sea mirror the 
blue of the sky, and the great white dome of Mount 
Eainier (if you happen to be in Seattle; otherwise, 
Mount Tacoma), with the lesser heights of the Olympic 
Mountains, presents a picture of grandeur which may 
never be forgotten. 

The larger portion of the State, lying east of the Cas- 
cade Range, presents very different conditions. There 
are places on the Columbia River, in the very heart of the 
State, where the rainfall is lighter than in any other part 
of the United States, with the exception of the south- 
western deserts, in Arizona and California. Such places 
enjoy an extraordinary number of cloudless days and 
may very properly be classified with the Land of Sun- 
shine. In this portion of the State, the altitude is much 
higher than in the Sound region and the seasons more 
sharply differentiated. Along the Columbia plowing 
may be done almost continuously, while at the higher 
elevations it is usually suspended from the middle of 
November to the middle of February. 

Eastern Washington produces grain without irrigation 
and is a famous grazing country. This is due probably 
as much to the remarkable quality of the soil as to the 
rainfall, which is not extensive. The Great Bend region 
is noted for its wheat, while the " Horse Heaven " country 
enjoys a renown in connection with the grazing industry 
which is sufficiently indicated by its name. 

The principal towns in the irrigated districts of Wash- 
ington are North Yakima, Prosser, Wenatchee, Ellens- 
burg, and Walla Walla. Kennewick and Pasco, on op- 
posite sides of the Columbia, near its confluence with the 

203 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Yakimii River, are growing and destined to be of much 
more importance in the future. Spokane is the attract- 
ive metropolis of eastern Washington. It has lived 
through the rise and fall of the inevitable boom and now 
rests upon most substantial foundations. These are the 
industries of mining, lumbering, stock-raising, and grain- 
growing. 



204 



CHAPTER VI 

OREGON IN TRANSITION 

Oregon is one of the finest of all Western States and 
one which is not appreciated as it deserves to be. Its 
population, according to the census of 1900, is only 4.4 
persons to each square mile. By a curious coincidence, it 
gained almost exactly one person for each square mile of 
its area during the last ten years, a rate of growth which 
would require many centuries to enable it to approach 
anything like the limit of its capacity for the support of 
population. For those who know Oregon, it is not diffi- 
cult to understand the backwardness of its development. 

It is only about twenty years since the transcontinental 
railroad reached Portland, and the chief growth of the 
State has been realized since that event. Existing trans- 
portation facilities are entirely inadequate. They per- 
mit Oregon to live; they do not enable it to develop its 
resources as they ought to be developed. It is as though 
Boston had one railroad up the coast from New York 
and another transcontinental line from the West, — 
"only this and nothing more." Instead, the group of 
six small New England States is gridironed with steam 
and electric railroads, penetrating every district of the 
slightest interest or value and bringing the blood of trade 
through a thousand arteries to the commercial heart at 
Boston. With such facilities, it is possible to develop 

205 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

natural resources to the limit and to maintain a dense 
population. 

Oregon has two railroads, one running north and south, 
the other east and west. True, Portland also enjoys con- 
nections with the three northern railways which send 
spurs down from Puget Soimd; but while these serve the 
needs of through traffic to some extent, they do not assist 
the internal development of the great commonwealth. 
They do not open up the splendid interior valleys to set- 
tlement, nor bring the products of the mines, farms, 
orchards, and ranges to the seaboard. They do not 
break the isolation of remote districts which have all the 
raw materials for an active and prosperous economic life 
except population and which cannot hope to have popu- 
lation until transportation facilities are pro^aded. Thus 
the passing years do but little to widen the foundation of 
Oregon's industrial life, notwithstanding the fact that 
priceless resources stand ready and waiting. 

Oregon fell an early and easy prey to the spirit of 
bonanza farming. Its virgin soil bore extraordinary 
crops of small grain, sometimes yielding three or four 
crops as the reward of a single sowing. Land was cheap 
and easily acquired. There was plenty of room for big 
things, including big farms. Hence, the grain industry 
took firm possession of the beautiful Willamette Valley, 
of the Palouse countr}'-, and of other favored localities. 
The single-crop idea was widely prevalent. Here, as 
always and everywhere, it ended in the impoverishment 
alike of the soil and of the farmers. With the fall of 
prices and the pressure of indebtedness, this most ex- 
tensive of Oregon industries has suffered severely until 

206 



OEEGON IN TRANSITION 

at last a reaction appears to have come in favor of 
smaller farms and more diversified production. 

Lumbering, mining, and manufacturing have been 
considerably developed and are capable of enormous 
expansion in the future. Manufacturing is hampered, 
however, by lack of transportation facilities and of cheap 
fuel, and by the limitations of the market. It would 
seem that the great opportunities of Oregon in the future 
lie in two directions. First, in the way of internal de- 
velopment, chiefly by the irrigation of its fertile soil and 
its subdivision into a multitude of small estates ; second, 
in the growih of its export trade to Alaska and the 
Orient. As to the first, it must rely in part upon the 
National Government and in part upon its own energies, 
public and private. The second opportunity is in con- 
trol of world-wide forces now apparently in active oper- 
ation. 

The moist coastline of Oregon has given it wide repu- 
tation as a land of excessive rainfall. It may, therefore, 
seem surprising to speak of this State as needing irriga- 
tion. The fact is that a portion of it receives the heaviest 
rainfall in the United States. This is on the western 
slope of the mountains which run down close to the coast. 
The western third of the State is sharply divided from 
the eastern two-thirds, so far as its climatic character is 
concerned, by the lofty Cascade Range. This intercepts 
the moisture-laden clouds and winds from the Pacific, 
condensing them into snow and leaving the larger part of 
Oregon arid or semi-arid. Thus it happens that no other 
influence would go so far to quicken and to broaden the 
economic life of Oregon as the intelligent application of 

207 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

a great irrigation policy. It would effect a sweeping 
revolution in its entire industrial character. It would 
arrest the downward tendency of agriculture by stopping 
the impoverishment of the soil, by abolishing the evils of 
the single crop, and by fostering that spirit of co-oper- 
ation without which the farmers must always be exploited 
for the benefit of those who furnish their supplies and 
handle their products. On the social side, it would give 
to the future population the innumerable advantages 
which come with density of settlement and which are 
wholly unattainable where isolation is the prevailing 
condition. 

Considered from every standpoint, irrigation is the 
golden key which may alone unlock the doors of civil- 
ization to wide districts in Oregon, particularly east of 
the Cascade Mountains. The logic of these facts is 
gradually coming to be realized and accepted. New 
tendencies are beginning to show in the life of the State. 
If not yet very powerful, they are growing. There can 
be little doubt that by the first or second quarter of the 
present century, Oregon will present an entirely different 
picture, from the industrial standpoint, than it does to- 
day. 

The two railroads which traverse the State give the 
traveller a fair idea of its character as a whole. Enter- 
ing from the south and journeying north to Portland, 
one rides for hours through the charming valleys of the 
Eogue and Willamette rivers in the midst of beautiful 
scenery and within sight of pine forests and fertile farms. 
Of late years the orchards, mostly of apples, pears, and 
prunes, have notably increased, while in the vicinity of 

208 



OREGON IN TRANSITION 

many thrifty towns there are grateful signs of the 
growth of small homes. The climate of this western 
valley, which lies directly north of the Sacramento, is 
not very different from that of California, though the 
variation in temperature is just sufficient to destroy the 
California characteristic in certain lines of production. 
Oranges and lemons are not grown commercially. Many 
people think the climate superior to that of California 
because it offers a little more variety, while retaining the 
mild quality which is so attractive and healthful. The 
conditions are extremely favorable for the development 
of the finest sort of colonies which, with irrigation as a 
foundation, might be almost wholly self-sustaining and 
have a large surplus product to dispose of in the home 
market. This is true for the reason that Oregon as a 
whole by no means produces all it consumes, and that 
farmers engaged in raising grain are themselves large 
patrons of those who take varied products from the soil. 

Portland is a thriving commercial and manufacturing 
city, as well as a financial, social, and political centre. 
Its position on the Willamette near its confluence with 
the Columbia, though nearly a hundred miles inland, 
enables it to enjoy a considerable coastwise and foreign 
trade. It is one of the wealthiest and most substantial 
of American towns and, both in business and residence 
districts, presents a quality of solidity that is unusual in 
new countries. While its position as the foremost city 
of the Northwest is, perhaps, menaced by the pheno- 
menal growth of Seattle, it will always be the metropolis 
of a vast region. 

The railroad running east from Portland into south- 
o 209 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ern Idaho crosses the Cascade Mountains and follows the 
Columbia River for a considerable distance. It pene- 
trates the plains and rolling hills, which are chiefly de- 
voted to wheat-farming, and passes on through the min- 
ing regions in the Blue Mountains and the sage-brush 
deserts which mark the most easterly counties of the 
State. Here settlement is extremely sparse and, in most 
localities, development has not proceeded beyond the 
frontier stage. It is a prosperous stock country, but 
large portions of it are capable of better things. To 
quote F. H. Newell: 

" It may be pictured as a series of broad plains and mesas, 
covered with lava of various ages, from that outpoured recently 
to the ancient flows whose surface has largely changed into 
soil. This supports a dense growth of sage-brush, and also 
juniper near the mountains, these being intermingled with 
forage plants. The vegetation becomes sparse out on the broad 
valleys, but nearly everywhere furnishes good grazing." 

Here the land is chiefly the property of the Govern- 
ment. Large areas are susceptible of irrigation and of 
serving as the foundation of a very desirable class of 
homesteads. The water supply is quite abundant, as 
the Columbia receives several large tributaries from the 
south which might readily be turned upon the soil. 
Among the valleys where large opportunities for rec- 
lamation may be found, chiefly by means of storage, 
are those watered by the Snake River, the Malheur, the 
Des Chutes, the John Day, and Willow and Bully 
Creeks. There are also many large natural lakes in 
eastern Oregon which might be drawn upon for irriga- 
tion. There are large possibilities in connection with 

310 



OREGON IN TRANSITION 

the development of underground supplies by means of 
artesian wells. 

The altitude of this district ranges from three thou- 
sand to four thousand feet, though the mountains reach 
eight thousand feet or more. The climate is entirely 
different from that of western Oregon. There is a wide 
range of temperature during the course of the year — a 
good deal of honest cold in the winter and of honest heat 
in the summer. The winter also brings snow and ice, 
though these do not remain long at a time. It is the 
familiar climate of the temperate zone, agreeably tem- 
pered by the prevailing aridity of the Far West. 

Taken as a whole, Oregon is capable of furnishing 
work and homes for large numbers of men and women. 
Under wise laws governing its development, it could 
absorb hundreds of thousands into its agricultural life 
and thousands more in the use of other natural re- 
sources, such as the forests, the mines and quarries, the 
grazing lands and water powers. These developments 
would necessitate more thousands in the various employ- 
ments of numerous towns. To put it in a word, Oregon 
is a great State, now only in the infancy of its develop- 
ment, waiting to be used when men shall have need of 
its resources and shall be wise enough to fit their laws 
and institutions to the conditions it offers them. 

Oregon is to-day in a state of transition. It has been 
known as a land of excessive rainfall, and it is now to 
be celebrated because of its triumph over the aridity 
which prevails throughout much the larger portion of its 
domain. It has had large farms and the single crop; 
under irrigation systems which are being rapidly ex- 

211 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

tended, both by private and public enterprise, it is to have 
small farms and diversified productions. Its develop- 
ment has been notably slow; it now promises to go for- 
ward by strides and bounds in response to new influences 
which are rapidly rising in its economic life. The suc- 
cess of the Exposition in commemoration of the Lewis 
and Clark centennial will greatly strengthen these new 
tendencies and Oregon may be expected to give a good 
account of itself when the next national census is taken. 



212 



CHAPTEK VII 

THE RISING STATE OF NEVADA 

Nevada, after a period of stagnation and decline, is 
moving along the upward path with steady strides and 
stands well to the front among States which are con- 
spicuously prosperous. 

No mining camps are attracting wider attention than 
Tonopah, Goldfield, and Bullfrog. No new agricultural 
district is more prominently in the eye of the home- 
seeker than Carson Valley, watered by the first govern- 
ment canal to reach completion. No railroad develop- 
ments now in progress promise more revolutionary results 
in opening rich, but hitherto idle, natural resources to 
human conquest, than the " Clark Road," which traverses 
the neglected empire of southern Nevada, the Western 
Pacific, which is to cross the State from east to west, and 
the lines which have been extended into the new and 
flourishing mining camps near the southwestern border. 
And few indeed are the towns which show a stronger 
pulse-beat than Eeno, the commercial capital of the 
State. 

No division of the Union has been so persistently and 
grossly misunderstood as the big sage-brush common- 
wealth which lies between Utah and California — two 
States of unusual human interest. The popular im- 
pression of Nevada has been largely created by those 

213 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

whose opinion of its scenery and resources is based on 
their experience of a railroad flight across its wide ex- 
panse. They glance impatiently out of the car window, 
inhale some alkali dust, and then denounce the region 
as " only fit to hold the earth together." If they happen 
to be literary artists, they vent their disgust in some 
such striking phrases as these, employed by a popular 
writer in a recent novel : 

" For beauty and promise, Nevada is a name among names. 
Nevada ! Pronounce the word aloud. Does it not evoke 
mountains and clear air, heights of untrodden snow and valleys 
aromatic with the pine and musical with falling waters ? 
Nevada ! But the name is all. Abomination of desolation 
presides over nine-tenths of the place. The sun beats down on 
a roof of zinc, fierce and dull. Not a drop of water to a mile of 
sand. The mean ash-dump landscape stretches on from no- 
where to nowhere, a spot of mange. No portion of the earth is 
more lacquered with paltry, unimportant ugliness." 

What a difference in human souls ! The man who 
sees a " spot of mange " in God's handiwork only reflects 
the spot of mange within himself, and shows how his 
own intelligence is "lacquered with paltry, unimportant 
ugliness." John C. Van Dyke looks upon the same scenes 
and then writes, in that classic, " The Desert : " 

," Not in vain these wastes of sand. And this time not be- 
cause they develop character in desert life, but simply because 
they are beautiful in themselves and good to look upon whether 
they be life or death. In sublimity — the superlative degree of 
beauty — what land can 'equal the desert with its wide plains, 
its grim mountains, and its expanding canopy of sky ! You 
shall never see elsewhere as here the dome, the pinnacle, the 
minaret fretted with golden fire at sunrise and sunset ; you 

214 




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THE RISING STATE OF NEVADA 

shall never see elsewhere as here the sunset valleys swimming 
in a pink and lilac haze, the great mesas and plateaus fading 
into blue distance, the gorges and canyons banked full of purple 
shadow. Never again shall you see such light and air and 
color ; never such opaline mirage, such rosy dawn, such fiery 
twilight. . . . Look out from the mountain's edge once more. 
A dusk is gathering on the desert's face, and over the eastern 
liorizon tlie purple shadow of the world is reaching up to the 
sky. The light is fading out. Plain and mesa are blurring into 
unknown distances, and mountain-ranges are looming dimly 
into unknown heights. Warm drifts of lilac-blue are drawn 
like mists across the valleys ; the yellow sands have shifted 
into a pallid gray. The glory of the wilderness has gone down 
with the sun. Mystery — that haunting sense of the unknown — 
is all that remains." 

The difference between these two authors is only a 
difference in development. The one beholds a sealed 
book; the other understands. Nevada is typical of the 
whole desert region between the Eockies and the Western 
Ocean. To those who cannot comprehend its strange 
ensemble it is undeniably ugly, but to those who can 
comprehend, it is a land stamped with a beauty full of 
endless surprises. These latter are not necessarily cul- 
tured Van Dykes. They may be men who have never 
studied art or even read a book. Many a Piute Indian 
has looked upon the deserts and mountains of Nevada 
with a comprehension utterly denied to the novelist who 
beholds nothing in the scene except a " mean ash-dump 
landscape." 

Even the fleeting railroad tourist might correct his 
superficial impression of Nevada's worthlessness by get- 
ting out of the car occasionally. Let him step off for a 
few moments to enjoy the cool fragrance of the little 

215 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

oasis at Humboldt, to walk within the shade of its trees 
and hear the music of its waters. The little patch of 
green which a hillside spring has spoken into being is a 
sample of what millions of desert acres will become. 
Farther on, the west-bound traveller catches a twilight 
glimpse of the thriving farms of Lovelock or the green 
Truckee meadows. But the larger examples of irriga- 
tion lie off the beaten path. Such an instance is the 
Carson Valley, hidden between the sheltering shoulders 
of the Sierras. To appreciate the possibilities of the 
region, the critic should visit that valley in the perfect 
Nevada springtime and look upon its farms, its homes, 
and its villages. There he would behold a memorable 
picture of thrift, of beauty, and of peace, from the 
white blossoms in the dooryards to the white summits of 
the mountains, and there he might read the true proph- 
ecy of Nevada's future. 

Nevada farmers are very prosperous on the average, 
taking one year with another, and probably much more 
so than the farmers in more pretentious localities. For 
the most part, they were poor when they came and have 
grown steadily better off. The climate is perfectly 
adapted to the production of all the cereals and hardy 
fruits. The wheat is perfect, with a full, rich kernel 
and a clean, golden straw, free from smut and rust. 
It has taken prizes at all the great expositions. With a 
variety of soil, on the different slopes of hillside, plain, 
and valley, there are conditions to meet almost every 
requirement in an agricultural way within the limitations 
of climate. It seems absurd to explain that Nevada does 
not produce oranges, yet the question is sometimes asked 

216 




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THE RISING STATE OF NEVADA 

by those who only know that Nevada is the next-door 
neighbor of California. Speaking broadly, Nevada is an 
elevated plateau in the Great Basin enclosed by the 
Wasatch Range on the east and the Sierra on the west, 
having an average altitude of about four thousand feet. 
Its climate is that of the north temperate zone. The 
winter is cold, the summer hot, the springtime marked 
by showers and high wind, the autumn long and golden. 
As in other parts of the arid region, the dry air moderates 
cold and heat, giving man and vegetation the benefits 
arising from the vigorous qualities of these extremes 
without the unpleasant effects which are felt in humid 
districts. 

The national irrigation projects in Nevada are de- 
scribed in a later chapter, but it is important to note here 
the influence which this development must inevitably 
exert upon the whole social, political, and commercial 
life of the State. There will be a steady influx of popula- 
tion for many years to come. Farms will be smaller and 
more intensively cultivated. There will be a correspond- 
ing expansion in all lines of business. Social life in the 
country will lose its frontier characteristics, and politi- 
cal power will gravitate largely into the hands of the 
hosts of newcomers, drawn from many different parts of 
the United States. Owing their opportunities to the first 
great national experiment in the public ownership of utili- 
ties essential to industrial development, it would be 
strange indeed if this new population — the dominant 
element of the future — does not favor very advanced 
ideas in politics. 

Of all the slanders circulated about Nevada, the story 

217 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

that its mineral wealth was exhausted was the most 
senseless. This slander has been effectually answered by 
events, for ISTevada is to-day the scene of the greatest 
activity in mining and the centre of attraction for that 
large public which rushes toward the newest and most 
glittering camp. Writing of this aspect of its resources, 
Mr. Robert L. Fulton, one of the most prominent and 
useful citizens of Nevada, says : 

" Nothing could be more tempting to the settler than the 
chance to find a good mine near home, and there is not a valley 
in Nevada that does not lie within siglit of ranges of liills con- 
taining a good percentage of the precious metals. The farmer's 
boy need not loaf in the saloon or post-office, if he has energy 
and sense. He can open a prospect and work all winter in a 
good warm tunnel or a sheltered cut, and, if he finds ore, he 
can have it hauled to the quartz-mill in the spring, just as his 
father hauls his wheat in the fall. Mining in Nevada has had 
a wonderful history, with the record of the finest camp the 
world has ever seen, where over six hundred million dollars 
were taken from one rock a mile in length, but the past is but 
a promise of what is to be when the State is settled and the 
university has taught our boys how to test the rocks and pros- 
pect the hundred thousand square miles of territory that has 
hardly been scratched as yet." 

With few exceptions, deep mining has not been pur- 
sued. Only the richer ores near the surface have been 
utilized, and these by expensive processes and at high 
cost of transportation. It is interesting to call the roll of 
the fourteen counties and to observe their mineral possi- 
bilities. 

Elko, in the extreme northeastern corner of the State, 
where the railroad traveller enters from Utah, yielded 
placer-gold to the earliest prospectors of the Great Basin 

218 



THEKISING STATE OF NEVADA 

and has gold ledges of promising extent and value which 
are now being carefully explored. Humboldt, central 
on the northern boundary, presents as great a variety of 
resources as any district in the United States. Besides 
silver, it possesses gold, copper, lead, tin, iron, antimony, 
nickel, cobalt, bismuth, nitre, suljohur, gypsum, borax, 
soda, and salt. Coarse gold to the value of several mil- 
lions has been taken from its placer and gravel mines. 
Gypsum is shipped to San Francisco for fertilizer. Near 
Lovelock, in this county, are great hills of fine bessemer 
iron ore, yielding eighty-six per cent, of iron and twelve 
per cent, of aluminum, with no trace of impurities. 
Eureka county, in the central part of the State, has 
many mines in which gold predominates, besides large 
deposits of magnetic iron ore, of lead, of granite, and of 
other building stones. Lander, adjoining Eureka on the 
west, has valuable undeveloped gold deposits and the 
richest mines of antimony in the world. Of the western 
counties, Washoe reports recent discoveries of gold, cop- 
per, and iron; Douglas, quartz and placer-gold; Lyon, 
mines which run high in gold, with but little silver; 
Churchill, gold, copper, and other minerals ; while Storey 
contains the Comstock. Esmeralda, bordering Cali- 
fornia on the extreme southwest, is very rich in gold- 
bearing quartz, and is being actively developed. Lincoln 
and Nye, the two great counties of the south, have gold, 
copper, lead, antimony, zinc, quicksilver, fire-clay, chalk, 
soapstone, borax, and alum. In Lincoln there is a de- 
posit of zinc, estimated to be worth several millions, 
which cannot be worked because of lack of transportation 
facilities. There are hills of salt, the product of which 
commands locally but $1 per ton, owing to its inaccessi- 

219 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

bility, though other localities in the State pay $20 to 
$40 per ton for a similar product. Wliite Pine County, 
along the eastern boundary, has extensive gold placers. 

Finally, there is a large deposit in Elko County of 
something which is said never to have been discovered 
elsewhere — mineral soap, superior in cleansing virtues to 
any of the manufactured varieties known to the students 
of modern advertising. As the country was principally 
occupied by Piute Indians, the deposit remained undis- 
turbed for nameless centuries. But it was exhibited at 
the World's Fair at Chicago, where, it is to be feared, it 
added nothing to Nevada's fame. The thing was so palp- 
ably and unmistakably the perfection of toilet articles 
that it over-taxed Eastern credulity and was quietly set 
down as a larger piece of mendacity than of soap. 

Standing on the height above the roaring Truckee at 
Reno, in the midst of fragrant alfalfa fields and well- 
fruited orchards, but little imagination is required to 
behold the Nevada of the future which is now rapidly 
rising on the Nevada of the past. A big, splendid, 
American State, blest with the climate in which English- 
speaking man has won nearly all his triumphs, except 
that its skies are cleared by aridity and its sunshine 
brightened by altitude, a land full of prosperous little 
farms, tilled by their owners, mountains pouring out 
their annual tribute of gold and silver, towns large 
enough to offer the refinements of modern life yet small 
enough to escape the awful contrasts between superfluous 
wealth and hopeless poverty, and a people so economically 
freed and politically untrammelled that they may make 
their institutions what they will, — this is the Nevada of 
the future. 

220 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE UNKNOWN LAND OP WYOMING 

A SINGLE railroad traverses the length of Wyoming, 
taking the traveller through that portion of the State 
possessing the least attractions in the way of scenery and 
development. As a consequence, thousands of people 
who have made the transcontinental journey think of 
this new commonwealth as a barren wilderness of withered 
grass and stunted sage-brush, with an abundance of 
rugged mountain views along its southern horizon, but 
without visible means of support for population save a few 
cheerless trading towns and grimy coal-mining camps. 
These tourists find the altitude disagreeably high and the 
atmosphere generally chilly, if not cold. They behold no 
cultivated fields, no homes framed in trees and vines ; 
hence do not marvel that the population of this vast 
State is no larger than that of fourth-class cities in the 
East. 

Spite of this popular prejudice, which may hardly be 
complained of as unreasonable, Wyoming is a very great 
State in its natural resources, and must some day sustain 
a population as large as that of Ohio and Illinois. If 
its first railroad had penetrated its central or northern 
counties it would even now be as celebrated and as pop- 
ulous as Colorado. Because of its stores of coal and 

221 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

petroleum it is frequently called the " Pennsylvania of 
the West." Its dei)osits of both base and precious metals 
are extensive and widely diffused, though the present 
output is small, owing to the cost of transportation and 
the fact that mining capital and enterprise have been at- 
tracted elsewhere by the greater fame of other localities. 
It is well endowed with forests and blessed with the no- 
blest scenery, of which the far-famed grandeurs of the 
Yellowstone Park furnish the best example. But its 
greatest resources are those of water and of land. It is 
estimated that not less than ten million acres of fertile 
land may be reclaimed by irrigation. Distributed rather 
evenly through different portions of the State, and sur- 
rounded by the wealth of mine, forest, water-power, and 
natural pastures, this irrigable land will furnish the solid 
foundation of a great and manifold economic life in fut- 
ure centuries. 

The great industry of Wyoming from the time of its 
first settlement has been stock-raising. Its agriculture 
has been mostly auxiliary to this. Herds of horses, 
cattle, and sheep are grazed upon the enormous free 
pasture or range from spring to autumn, and then fed 
upon the native or alfalfa hay raised in the irrigated 
valleys. This industry has been the source of local pros- 
perity and enlisted great sums of eastern and foreign 
capital. It is a pursuit which does not develop the 
higher possibilities of the country, either in a material 
or social way, and so long as its influence strongly domi- 
nated the life of the community Wyoming did not fur- 
nish an attractive field for settlers. There was a time 
when prominent men actually deprecated the growth of 
population, and boldly asserted that brute cattle were 

222 



THE UNKNOWN LAND OF WYOMING 

more to be welcomed than men, women, and children in 
that sparsely settled empire. In the last few years, how- 
ever, the tendency of public thought and political action, 
consequently of development, has been distinctly away 
from barbarism and towards civilization. 

What is rather grotesquely knoAvn as *' The Eustlers' 
AYar " of 1892 had much to do with the changed con- 
ditions. Properly speaking, it was not a war, but a raid, 
which ended disastrously so far as its immediate purpose 
was concerned. Individuals and companies owning large 
herds of horses and cattle had suffered repeatedly from 
the depredations of thieves or ''rustlers." They had 
often apprehended the culprits and sought by every 
means in their power to punish them through the courts. 
But the cases were tried in counties where public sen- 
timent strongly opposed the great cattle-owners. The 
result was that no Jury could be found to convict. After 
a long and exasperating experience of this kind the 
large stock interests determined to try a heroic remedy. 
They fitted out an expedition, consisting mostly of rough 
characters from Texas, and thoroughly armed it, even a 
Galling gun being included in its equipment. The ex- 
pedition was led by prominent and wealthy citizens and 
accompanied by a young English lord in search of a new 
sensation. 

A considerable number of " rustlers," who were settlers 
living in lonely places with small bands of cattle or horses, 
were marked for "removal," or, plainly speaking, for 
murder. The expedition set out blithely enough, har- 
boring no doubts of its complete success and not dream- 
ing that any obstacle could be interposed to its formi- 
dable array. The first two "rustlers" encountered were 

223 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

found conveniently at their cabin doors and promptly 
despatched, though they died with their guns in their 
hands and were able to make a feeble response to the 
overwhelming numbers. But beyond these two assassi- 
nations the expedition was unsuccessful. The small 
settlers throughout the region were in sympathy with the 
men marked for death. The news of the '' invasion " 
spread with incredible swiftness, and before the expedition 
could reach the homes of other intended victims the 
"rustlers" and their farmer allies, under the aggressive 
leadership of Jack Flagg — a noted character in the neigh- 
borhood — rallied in large numbers. They surrounded 
the "invaders" at a farm-house, and would have exter- 
minated them to the last man except for the timely ar- 
rival of a troop of United States cavalry from the nearest 
fort. After several months of delay, the powerful politi- 
cal influence of those who had organized the expedition 
succeeded in setting its members free without serious 
punishment. 

Public opinion differed much as to the justice of this 
bold effort to dispose once and for all of the annoying and 
costly evil of cattle -thieves. By some it was regarded 
as the irrepressible conflict between the irrigated farm 
and the free range. These thought that the real animus 
of the affair lay not in the just complaint against a few 
thieves, but in the fixed determination of those who 
profited from the unrestricted use of the public lands to 
prevent, at any cost, further settlement by honest farmers. 
On the other hand, there were many good citizens, men 
who had not hesitated to risk their fortunes in construct- 
ing irrigation works for the very purpose of opening 
certain valleys to settlement, who did not hesitate to 

234 



THE UNKNOWN LAND OF WYOMING 

defend the expedition as the only possible means of end- 
ing an intolerable condition in the State. The writer 
has taken pains to gather testimony years after the 
event, when angry passions had wholly passed away, and 
found excellent evidence of the fact that those who were 
selected for extermination at the hands of the "invad- 
ers'' were actually cattle- thieves; that it was clearly 
impossible either to end the evil or to stop its growth by 
appeal to the courts; and that farmers who settled in 
good faith were never molested by the large stock in- 
terests. 

However, the political control of Wyoming speedily 
changed hands as the result of this dramatic episode. 
The party in power at the time of the event was voted 
into retirement, and the party which denounced the 
"invasion "as a savage and unmanly attempt to make 
widows and orphans of the wives and children of those 
who honestly sought homes in the public domain was 
installed in the Capitol at Cheyenne. The probable 
truth of the matter is that wealthy cattlemen had a real 
grievance which they could not adjust peacefully with- 
out years of patient waiting. They felt perfectly justi- 
fied in their consciences in resorting to violence. They 
believed the result would be favorable to the prosperity 
and good name of the State. This actually proved to be 
the case, but in a very different way from what they had 
anticipated. It drew attention in a startling manner to 
certain evils inseparable from the open range and j)ut 
these evils on the road to ultimate settlement through 
Congressional action. It broke the power of what was 
doubtless justly known as "The Cattle Ring" in State 
politics. It gave an impulse to better forms of develop- 
P 235 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ment and a healthier tone to public thought. Above 
all, it taught the men of the frontier the great lesson 
that this is a government of laws and institutions, and 
that nothing is to be gained in the end by resorting to 
violence, at least when nothing more precious to human- 
ity than the ownership of dumb brutes is the issue in- 
volved. 

The irrigation develoj)ment of Wyoming is distributed 
over a wide area. As has already been said, it has grown 
up mostly as an adjunct to the cattle business. The 
water supply is very abundant, and admitted of the con- 
struction of many cheap canals by settlers, without the 
assistance of outside capital. Grass, grain, and vege- 
tables are the principal crops, but the State annually 
sends from half a million to one million dollars beyond 
its borders for agricultural products. This is due in 
part to the fact that the chief farming centres are wide- 
ly separated from the principal towns and not connected 
with them by railroads. It is due also to the fact that 
small-farming has not yet been undertaken to any extent, 
and that farmers produce mostly only what they can feed 
to cattle or sell to others having cattle to feed. 

The most active agricultural region is in the north- 
central portion of the State, in Johnson and Sheridan 
counties. It was from this district that the marvellous 
wheat, barley, and oats were sent to the World's Fair at 
Chicago — products which astonished Eastern farmers and 
won the highest jarizes. Here, as indeed throughout the 
State, the farmers are highly prosperous. They have 
never known the miseries of their drought - stricken 
neighbors so close at hand in Nebraska and Dakota. 
Selling their product at home, they have not felt the bur- 

226 



THE UXKXOWN LAND OF WYOMING 

den of transportation charges, nor had their prices much 
reduced by the glut of cereals in the world's market. 

The earliest irrigation work of great importance was 
that at Wheatland, sixty-five miles north of Cheyenne. 
This Avas undertaken by local capitalists, headed by ex- 
Senator Carey. After surviving many difficulties, it at 
length entered upon a period of real prosperity and 
created the finest agricultural colony in the State. It is 
interesting to note that many of its people represent the 
overflow of the famous Greeley Colony in neighboring 
Colorado. 

The most notable recent enterprise in Wyoming is 
that undertaken in the Bighorn Basin by the famous 
scout, William F. Cody, familiarly known as " Buffalo 
Bill." This energetic and ambitious man, who has twice 
won fame — first as a daring and successful scout, and 
then as exhibitor to two continents of the life, people, and 
customs of the Wild West — has laid broad and deep the 
foundations of a still stronger claim to remembrance. 
He conceived the idea of planting civilization in one of 
the wildest regions which he had first known as hunter 
and Indian-fighter. The money which the public poured 
into the coffers of his Wild West show, Cody used in re- 
claiming and colonizing a large tract in the valley of the 
Shoshone River in northern Wyoming, twenty to sixty 
miles from the Montana line and immediately east of 
Yellowstone Park. The altitude here is about four 
thousand feet, and the climate suited to the production 
of diversified crops, including hardy fruits. It is also 
the finest of cattle countries, and is surrounded by an 
abundance of mineral and timber. Its products find 

227 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

ready sale in the large and growing mining camps of the 
neighborhood, as well as of Montana. In time the region 
must acquire a large population, supporting a many- 
sided life, and form a very substantial monument to 
William F. Cody and his work for the West. 

These lands were among the first to be investigated by 
the Eeclamation Service, and now form the " Shoshone 
project " which is described elsewhere in this book. As 
there stated, Colonel Cody turned over to the Government 
all his rights in the river, in order that the project might 
be developed on the largest possible scale. 

In the southern part of Bighorn County, a tract of 
thirty-five thousand acres of alluvial land is being re- 
claimed. The water is taken from the Bighorn River, 
which furnishes an abundant supply. A large steel flume 
to carry the canal across the river is a notable feature. 
The elevation of the land is about four thousand feet, and 
the climatic conditions favor the growth of fall wheat and 
barley, corn, and vegetables. The nearest town is Wor- 
land. The great drawback to the development of this 
region at present is the lack of railroad facilities. The 
settlers expect extensions of the railroads from Cody and 
Casper to Thermopolis, in 1906. 

The largest project by private capital in Wyoming now 
is one for the reclamation of about two hundred thousand 
acres of land between Cody and Burlington, in Bighorn 
County. The water is to be taken from the south fork of 
the Shoshone River, in the Oregon Basin. These lands 
have been segregated under the " Carey Act." It is ex- 
pected that the lands will be open for settlement in 1907. 

All the public lands in Bighorn County are in the 

228 



THE UNKNOWN LAND OF WYOMING 

Lander United States Land Office District, except a 
few townships in the eastern part of the county, which 
are in the Buffalo Land District. 

Considerable irrigation development by private enter- 
prise is also taking place in Fremont County. About 
twenty miles north of the towTi of New Fork, a tract of 
seven thousand acres on the western slope of the Wind 
River Mountains is being reclaimed and will soon be open 
to settlement. A canal has also been completed for the 
irrigation of a tract of over six thousand acres in the 
western part of this county, on a fork of the Green Eiver, 
and the land is now open to settlement. When this 
county is provided with railroad facilities, a vigorous and 
healthful development may be expected. 

The great activity of irrigation development in Wyom- 
ing is shown by the fact that for the two years ending 
November 30, IDO-t, the State Engineer's office issued 
1109 permits to appropriate water, and 316 applications 
for enlargement of water appropriations were filed in the 
same period. 

In the decade between 1890 and 1900, Wyoming's 
population increased from 60,705 to 92,531 — over fifty 
per cent. — and the present population is estimated by the 
Governor at over one hundred and twenty thousand. 

In the sheep industry, Wyoming ranks first in the 
United States, having now over five million sheep. The 
wool clip of 1900 amounted to 27,119,718 pounds, with 
an estimated value of $3,796,760. The value of its cat- 
tle in the same year was over six million dollars. Horses 
raised on its elevated table lands are superior in wind 
and endurance. In May, 1903, the saddle-horse " Wyom- 

229 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

ing," considered a typical product of the State, was pre- 
sented to President Eoosevelt, and is now in the White 
House stables. 

In 1901, Wyoming's production of coal amounted to 
over five million tons and gave employment to over nine 
thousand men. One-fourth of the area of the State is 
underlaid with coal. It is estimated that since 1883, the 
State has produced 15,206,092 pounds of copper, of the 
value of $2,267,775.60. The mining of iron ore is as- 
suming considerable importance, as well as the produc- 
tion of petroleum. The State now has nearly five 
hundred manufacturing establishments, representing an 
investment of over three million dollars. There are forty 
million acres of government land and about ten million 
acres of timber. With such prodigal wealth of raw ma- 
terials, such solid and substantial values already de- 
veloped, and such an impulse toward growth, Wyoming is 
destined to be the home of many millions of prosperous 
and contented people. 

The irrigation law of Wyoming is widely celebrated 
and has been influential in moulding the institutions of 
other States, and even those of Canada and Australia. It 
is based on the sound proposition that water belongs to 
the public and that only the public can grant the right 
to its use, which must be a beneficial use, with due re- 
gard to the rights and interests of all other users, present 
or prospective. This fundamental idea is applied by 
means of a thorough and effective administrative system. 
No canal proprietor is permitted to open or close the 
headgates of his own canal. This is done by public offi- 
cials clothed with police powers, who divide the water in 

230 



THE UNKNOWN LAND OF WYOMING 

strict conformity with the decrees of a State Board of 
Control. The result is an almost complete absence of 
litigation and of unseemly strife among neighbors which 
mar the irrigation industry in many other localities. 

But while the Wyoming method is admirably adapted 
to that State, where a multitude of individual proprie- 
tors take water from a common source, it does not meet 
the needs which are arising with new conditions through- 
out the West. There is a strong and irresistible tendency 
toward the consolidation of many small conflicting works 
into comprehensive public systems, and there can be no 
doubt that on each watershed there will finally come to be 
one system, diverting all the water that may be diverted, 
storing all that may be stored, and pumping all that 
may be pumped. This method will make for the highest 
efficiency and greatest economy. Each watershed will be 
a unit in itself and its affairs will be administered by its 
own people — a democracy of landed proprietors o^vning 
both the water and the soil — without State interference. 
The Wyoming system is a vast improvement over the 
chaos which prevails where each man is a law unto him- 
self, but the new system which is arising under the in- 
fluence of national irrigation represents a step far in ad- 
vance of the Wyoming system. 



231 



CHAPTEK IX 

THE PROSPERITY OF MONTANA ] 

Montana is a State of magnificent resources. The 
first white men who ever saw it — French explorers in 
the middle of the eighteenth century — called it "The 
Land of the Shining Mountains." The appellation is 
true as well as poetic, for it is the possession of its snow- 
capped ranges, reflecting the light of the brilliant sky, 
which differentiates Montana from the adjoining prairie 
States of the Northwest. It is the mountains which hold 
the wealth of waters and minerals and make the charac- 
ter of the climate. 

Montana ranks third in point of area among American 
States, and third in the value of its annual mineral out- 
put. It is yet too early, by many years, to estimate its 
final place in extent of population and agriculture. To- 
day mining is the first of its industries, stock-raising the 
second, agriculture the third. Mining gave the impulse 
to its settlement and is the backbone of its prosperity. 
The forty millions of dollars annually taken out in cop- 
per, lead, gold, and silver make it one of the most pros- 
perous of western communities. The discovery of new 
mining districts steadily continues, and the flow of wealth 
from this item of the State's resources will endure in- 
definitely. The conditionri of the stock industry are 

332 



THE PROSPERITY OF MONTANA 

very similar to those which we observed in Wyoming. 
Of the total population — about three hundred thou- 
sand — the farmers are a small minority. Nevertheless, 
irrigation is recognized as one of the most important in- 
terests of the State, and the field open to settlement offers 
many attractions. 

The first ditches in Montana were made for the pur- 
pose of washing gold-bearing gravel along the bars and 
gulches. When their usefulness in this direction was 
exhausted they were turned into irrigation canals by the 
farmers who came close upon the heels of the early miners. 
For many years development was limited to works of this 
humble character. Farmers had their own individual 
ditches, or combined their labor in making canals suffi- 
cient to water small districts. In this manner most of 
the mountain streams capable of easy diversion were util- 
ized. As in Wyoming, irrigation was largely used as 
only an adjunct to stock-raising. In recent years le- 
gitimate agriculture has begun to make rapid progress. 
Large cipital has been invested in a few comprehensive 
irrigation systems, notably in the valleys of the Dearborn 
and the Sun rivers, north of Helena. 

Montana is divided into three natural drainage areas — 
those of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers on the east 
of the main range of the Rockies, and that of the waters 
tributary to the Columbia on the western slope of the 
mountains. The eastern slope embraces the fertile val- 
leys of the Yellowstone, the Gallatin, the Madison, the 
Jefferson, the Beaverhead, the Prickly, and the long val- 
ley of the Missouri, with the Milk-river system in the 
extreme north, on the border of Canada. The western 
slope is mountainous and heavily timbered, with com- 

233 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

paratively small tliongh fertile valleys. The principal 
streams are the Flathead, Clark's Fork of the Columbia, 
and the Kootenai. The ultimate extent of irrigable land 
within the boundaries of Montana is purely speculative, 
estimates ranging from ten to thirty million acres. In 
the matter of water supply the State is among the most 
fortunate in the West, though its full utilization will 
require vast expenditure for the construction of storage- 
works and of long canals. Some of the largest rivers, 
like the Missouri and the Yellowstone, are enclosed by 
high bluffs, and water can be taken to the elevated 
plains, comprising the larger areas of valuable land, 
only by means of diversions made high up upon the 
streams. 

The opportunities which Montana offers to settlers 
have not been appreciated as they deserve. This is 
doubtless due to the severity of the climate, which is 
generally misunderstood. The State is in a high lati- 
tude, and does, indeed, experience cold winters. But its 
valleys are comparatively low, averaging much lower 
than those of Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, 
and its climate decidedly healthful. The thermometer 
goes twenty or thirty degrees below zero in the winter, 
but this degree of cold in the dry air of Montana is 
much less disagreeable than ten degrees above zero in 
any of the cities on the borders of the Great Lakes. On 
the other hand, the State enjoys a remarkably even pros- 
perity, and no other localities offer better certainty of 
home markets, where the products of the farm can be 
disposed of at good prices. 

There are many large and growing towns, and two or 
three cities of considerable size. The mining popula- 

234 



THE PROSFERITY OF MONTANA 

tion is destined steadily to increase, while manufactur- 
ing must begin in earnest during the next decade. The 
wheat, rye, oats, and vegetables produced in the irri- 
gated valleys are remarkable both in quantity and qual- 
ity. The brewers of Brooklyn, New York, selected the 
Manhattan Valley for important agricultural operations, 
because they found it would grow the finest barley in the 
world. Small fruits are prolific and of fine flavor. 

Even the orchard fruits, especially apples and plums, 
are produced successfully in the more sheltered valleys. 
The exhibits which one sees at county fairs, particu- 
larly at those on the western slope in valleys like the 
Bitter Root, make surprising revelations of the fruit 
possibilities in this northwestern State. But the settler's 
chief opportunity will be found in supplying the com- 
mon farm products required by the large and growing 
population in the cities and towns. Of the present local 
consumption, the great portion of the pork, bacon, ham, 
lard, and cheese, and nearly half of the flour, butter and 
eggs, are now brought in from elsewhere. Efforts are 
being made to change these conditions, and especially to 
increase the area cultivated in hard wheat. When such 
facts are considered in connection with the cheap land, 
abundant water supply, and healthful climate, it is ap- 
parent that Montana offers great attractions to colonists. 

The Gallatin Valley, southeast of Helena on the main 
line of the Northern Pacific, is the most famous agri- 
cultural district of Montana. It is well settled, with a 
class of thrifty farmers engaged in producing a variety of 
ordinary crops. Bozeman, the county seat, is the home 
of the State Agricultural College, and this institute has 
done much to raise the standard of irrigation and of 

235 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

farming in the locality, and thus to enhance the valley's 
prestige. The Missonri Valley, in the neighborhood of 
Great Falls, and the Bitter Root Valley about Missoula, 
are other well-developed districts. Crops are generally 
planted in April or the first half of May, though some- 
times in March. The spring rains continuing until the 
middle of June, irrigation does not begin until that date. 
Cattle, sheep, and wool are shipped to eastern markets, 
but other products are consumed within the State. 

While copper and the precious metals are the chief 
mineral products of the State, it is rich in lead, iron, 
coal, building materials, and precious stones. It is esti- 
mated that an area of not less than fifty thousand square 
miles is underlaid with bituminous or lignite coal of good 
quality. Coke is a growing product. The State is also 
rich in forests and abundantly supplied with natural 
water-power. It has, in a word, all the materials of a 
diversified industrial life. 

The social and political life of Montana is vigorous 
and interesting. Both the climate and the industries 
are calculated to breed a sturdy and self-reliant people. 
Helena, the capital, located in what was formerly known 
as Last Chance Gulch, has long enjoyed the reputation 
of being the richest city in proportion to its population 
in the world. Bntte is still larger — the largest mining 
camp in the United States. These two leading towns 
present radically different aspects of western life. 
Helena is the political and social capital, Butte the 
grimy centre of industry. Both have enjoyed phenom- 
enal prosperity, and escaped, to a large degree, the re- 
lapses which have afflicted other ambitious western 
cities at various times. 

236 



THE PROSrEUITY OF MONTANA 

The area where crops can bo successfully grown with- 
out irrigation is small, and practically none is now left 
open to entry. Good land with water sells for from ten 
to thirty-five dollars per acre, the average price being 
about twenty-five dollars. Improved lands bring as high 
as seventy-five dollars per acre. 

The truth is that Montana has been, and is yet, a 
marvellously substantial State. It has enjoyed a steady 
stream of wealth from the mine, tlie range, and the farm. 
Its mercantile enterprises have naturally thriven under 
these conditions, and labor has been busy and well paid. 
It has not been the policy of the people to encourage 
immigration on reckless lines merely to increase the 
population. On the contrary, the public sentiment has 
been notably conservative, and has only urged those to 
come who could be self-supporting by tilling the soil or 
establishing other industries. 

Great Falls, located at the most eligible water-power 
of the Upper Missouri river, has enjoyed a remarkable 
growth of population, and promises to become in time 
one of the great cities of the West. In addition to the 
water-power, it has the advantage of being surrounded 
by the raw materials of manufacture, in the shape of 
coal, iron, timber, and the products of the range — such 
as wool and hides^while large agricultural districts are 
tributary to it. There are many important towns along 
the line of the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern 
railroads. Of these Missoula is a prosperous mercantile 
point on the western slope, and Billings is the focus of 
agriculture in the Yellowstone Valley. 

Viewed as a whole, Montana is a State of substantial 
achievement and of splendid promise. 

237 



CHAPTER X 

THE AWAKEKIITG OF NTEW MEXICO 

In the southwestern Territories modern methods of 
reclamation are asserting their influence in the midst of 
historic and prehistoric irrigation scenes. 

In 1539 Fray Marcos de Nija, the earliest European 
who trod the soil of New Mexico, travelled for five days 
through a *' valley well watered and in a high state of 
cultivation, so that three thousand horsemen might have 
been sustained there." Another sixteenth- century visit- 
or saw corn-fields " watered by a small river which flowed 
near by, along the banks of which were growing great 
beds of roses, similar to those of Castile." Many a tour- 
ist on the Atlantic and Pacific Eailroad has seen the in- 
dustrious Pueblo Indians at work in their fields about 
Laguna. The travellers of three hundred and fifty years 
ago looked upon these same fields, which were irrigated 
then precisely as now, and as they probably had been for 
centuries before. 

New Mexico is much less favored in its water supply 
than the northern States of the arid region. Many of 
its streams are torrential and intermittent in character, 
carrying water in floods at some seasons and exhibiting 
dry channels when moisture is most needed. A large 
portion of the water supply, when the irrigation iudua- 

338 



THE AWAKENING OF NEW MEXICO 

try shall be fully developed, will be obtained by storage 
and from underground sources. This process has al- 
ready begun, but its operations will be much extended. 
Scattered all over the territory are the petty ditches of 
that numerous Mexican and Indian population which 
lives in serene peace and comfort upon the fruits of its 
unambitious efforts at tilling the soil. 

The important streams are the San Juan in the north- 
western corner of the Territory, the Eio Grande, which 
flows through the central portion from Colorado to Mex- 
ico, and the Rio Pecos in the southeast. These streams 
and their tributaries furnish, the basis of the modern ir- 
rigation industry of New Mexico. 

The northwestern part of the Territory is a pictu- 
resque and promising region, fortunate alike in mineral 
and water resources, in the fertility of its soil, and the 
charm of its climate. A number of small irrigation 
systems have been constructed, but storage will be re- 
quired before the opportunities of the district can be ex- 
tensively realized. The rivers are the San Juan and its 
tributaries, the most important of these being the Pine, 
the Animas, and the La Plata. When these are fully 
utilized, thousands of small farmers will be able to estab- 
lish profitable industries, including the culture of finely 
flavored, delicate fruits. They will find home markets 
in surrounding mining camps and in supplying feed for 
sheep and cattle which range upon the public pastures. 
Although this portion of the Territory is now remote 
from the main lines of railroad travel, its superior advan- 
tages must attract the attention of enterprise and im- 
migrants in the future and make it one of the most 
prosperous parts of the future State. 

239 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

New Mexico is distinguished by large land grants dat- 
ing from the days of Spanish control. They were natur- 
ally located along the watercourses, in what appeared to 
be the most attractive portions of the field open for selec- 
tion. These enormous grants have materially retarded 
development, for the reason that their titles were in dis- 
pute for many years and their owners generally " land 
poor." The Court of Private Claims, which recently 
completed its work, performed a great service for the 
arid region in the settlement of such disputed land titles. 

One of the most important of these properties is now 
known as the Maxwell Land Grant, and constitutes a 
principality in the northwestern part of the Territory, en- 
croaching slightly upon Colorado. Large capital has 
been used in the development of the mineral and agri- 
cultural resources of this grant. Its principal streams 
are the Vermejo and the Cimarron. Both have been util- 
ized extensively in connection with systems of reservoirs 
and canals which are notable for some of their engineer- 
ing features. Large areas have been irrigated and are 
cultivated in various crops. 

The waters of the Rio Grande have been diverted at 
many points along its course. This river rises in Colo- 
rado, where a large portion of its waters are taken out 
for use in the San Luis Valley. This interferes with 
New Mexico irrigation during the stage of low water in 
the summer. The stream reaches old Mexico still further 
diminished, and vexatious interstate and international 
complications have long existed from this cause. 

In 1896, the Republic of Mexico made formal con- 
plaint of the diminished flow of the stream at El Paso. 

240 



THE AWAKENING OF NEW MEXICO 

Its citizens have made a beautiful agricultural and horti- 
cultural region where Texas reaches out a slender finger 
of prosperity at El Paso. Here, they have practised 
irrigation for over two hundred and eighty years, and 
live with an enviable degree of comfort and thrift, 
though their methods are crude and ancient. The matter 
was referred to an International Boundary Commission, 
which recommended the construction of an international 
dam in the stream, at a spot called Elephant Butte, about 
four miles above El Paso, the extension of Mexico terri- 
tory up to the proposed dam, the equal ownership of the 
reservoir and water supply between the two republics, 
and the construction of other large reservoirs on the 
stream in New Mexico to be forbidden. 

There were many objections to this plan. New Mexico 
objected because some twenty-five thousand acres of good 
land belonging to its citizens above the dam site would 
be submerged, because of the prohibition of other dams 
on the stream, and for other reasons. Texas also ob- 
jected. At the Twelfth National Irrigation Congress, 
held at El Paso, Texas, November 15 to 18, 1904, an- 
nouncement was made of a new plan for the solution of 
the difficulty by the engineers of the United States Eec- 
lamation Service, which immediately enlisted the en- 
thusiastic support of the representatives of all the parties 
in interest. A resolution endorsing this new plan was 
signed by the delegates from Mexico, New Mexico, and 
Texas, and the way now appears to be clear for the settle- 
ment of the question in a way to do justice to all. 

The Reclamation Service has been surveying and 
studying the stream for two years with a view to develop- 
Q 241 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

ing its resources and settling this and other difficulties. 
Their plan is to build a storage dam at a new site about 
a quarter of a mile below Elephant Butte. It has been 
found that this can be done in such a way as to avoid the 
submergence of New Mexico's lands. The proposed dam 
will be 175 feet high at the lower end, the storage basin 
forty miles long, and the storage capacity two million 
acre feet, sufficient to irrigate one hundred and eighty 
thousand acres of land. It will be the largest dam on the 
river, and entirely interrupt the flow of the stream, even 
in wet years, and hold them for use as needed. It is such 
achievements as this which are demonstrating the wisdom 
of the policy of national control of the reclamation of the 
arid West. 

Much of the most notable irrigation development in 
New Mexico is that which has been accomplished since 
1890 in the Pecos Valley. It is in the southeastern quar- 
ter of the Territory, bordering upon the Staked Plains of 
Western Texas. No other locality in the arid region has 
had the benefit of such daring enterprise and dauntless 
faith as have been lavished upon this, originally one of 
the most forbidding and unpromising of Western valleys. 
By sheer force of money it has been translated from a 
semi-barbarous stock-range, fit only to support lean cat- 
tle, to an attractive field for settlement, where thou- 
sands of families can make their homes and win a certain 
livelihood from the soil. Civilization has laid its hand 
on the Pecos Valley and a crop of new institutions has 
begun to sprout from its soil. 

The valley is fortunate beyond any other part of the 
Territory in its water supplies. The Pecos Eiver and 
its tributaries drain a vast watershed and furnish a peren- 

243 




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THE AWAKENING OF NEW MEXICO 

nial flow of large dimensions. This has been conserved 
by large reservoirs, one of which is the second largest 
reservoir in the world. The valley is also blessed with 
extraordinary springs of flowing water, with artesian 
basins, and with underground supplies that may be lifted 
to the surface at comparatively small expense. With 
splendid disregard for immediate financial returns, these 
supplies have been utilized and led over the valley by a 
thousand miles of canals and ditches. The same liberal 
enterprise built railroads, established towns with modern 
facilities, and acquired large tracts of irrigable land. 
At Artesia, formerly Stegman, land is being rapidly 
taken up by settlers under the homestead and desert land 
laws, to be irrigated from artesian wells. The valley 
has passed safely through recent seasons of drought 
which proved disastrous to less favored sections, and land 
values are steadily rising. 

Lying in an altitude varying from three thousand to 
three thousand five hundred feet, but in the latitude of 
the extreme south, the Pecos Valley enjoys a good cli- 
mate. Its winters are short and not severe, though the 
mercury falls below freezing and thin ice is formed on 
still water. The summer days are hot, as elsewhere 
throughout the Southwest, but the nights are invariably 
comfortable, owing to the elevation of the country, which 
is on the high plateau of the Rocky Mountain region. 
The drawback about the climate is the wind, which some- 
times develops into sandstorms of considerable severity. 
With the extension of the cultivated area and the growth 
of trees this disadvantage will be minimized. 

Fields can be cultivated almost continuously and early 

243 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

crops of vegetables and small fruits grown. Alfalfa 
is cut four times a year, and after that furnishes con- 
siderable pasturage. All grains do "well, and Kaffir corn 
and Milo maize are extensively cultivated. Vegetables 
can be successfully grown throughout the valley, but 
seem to have been somewhat neglected in the south. 
Cotton raising is a flourishing industry here, and there is 
a gin at Carlsbad. 

The Pecos Valley is particularly adapted to sugar- 
beet culture. A series of experiments has demonstrated 
that the soil and climate are especially favorable to the 
growth of beets. A sugar-beet factory was erected in 
1896, and the farmers planted considerable areas to beets. 
The general average of all the beets delivered to the 
factory in car-load lots the first year, showed seventeen 
per cent, of sugar in the beets, with an average purity of 
eighty-two per cent. This is a higher percentage of 
actual extraction of pounds of sugar to pounds of beets 
than has been realized anywhere else in the world. Un- 
fortunately, the factory failed and afterward burned 
down, so that the industry is now dormant. The people 
of the valley are full of faith in the industry, under 
proper management, and believe, apparently with good 
reason, that it is destined to become a '' sugar belt.'' 

The valley has not been in cultivation long enough to 
determine the limitation of its products. The chemical 
qualities of the soil have been the subject of careful 
study by experts, and the people are gradually learning 
to what uses different districts are best adapted. In the 
upper portion of the valley, in what is locally known as 
the Roswell country, there are several ranches which 

244 



THE AWAKENING OF NEW MEXICO 

have been cultivated for many years. These have demon- 
strated beyond question the capabilities of soil and 
climate for the production of the finest apples, perfect in 
form, flavor and coloring. The raising of celery and 
cantaloupes are new and promising industries here. The 
lower valley seems more favorable to delicate fruits, 
such as peaches, grapes and apricots. 

One feature of this valley is especially worthy of the 
attention of settlers. This is the fact that the best of 
pasture adjoins the irrigable lands, on either hand, so 
that fine cattle, sheep, and horses are profitably raised 
in connection with the small-farming industry. Eais- 
ing winter fodder on their irrigated acres, the settlers 
co-operate in the management of their herds during the 
range season. For every acre under cultivation, there are 
three hundred acres of grazing land, over large areas of 
which an abundance of water is found at an average 
depth of from twenty to four hundred feet. Windmills 
dot the country, and practically every acre of gazing 
land is occupied by live stock. 

The chief town of the lower valley, formerly Eddy, 
but now called Carlsbad, enjoys a considerable degree of 
prosperity, both as the centre of a flourishing agricul- 
tural region and as one of the many attractive health 
resorts. Eoswell is the metropolis of the upper valley, 
and the scene of the greatest present activity of the Eec- 
lamation Service in the Territory. An account of the 
Government project on the Hondo Kiver, near this place, 
will be found in the chapter on government reclamation 
work. 

The development of the irrigation resources of New 

245 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Mexico has been stimulated by a law enacted four years 
prior to the passage of the present national irrigation 
law, under which half a million acres of land were 
granted to the Territory on condition that they be re- 
claimed by private enterprise. These lands are selected 
by a Land Commission, which in 1904 had selected over 
233,000 acres. The disposal of these lands is in the 
hands of a Commission of Irrigation, created by the 
Territorial Legislature in 1901 for the purpose of carry- 
ing out the provisions of the act. By the report of this 
Commission for 1904, it appears that there were then 
pending before it six private irrigation enterprises with 
a total estimated capacity of 157,000 acres, and two 
others not yet acted upon, with a total capacity of 43,000 
acres. No work had been done, but it was believed that 
within a year several of these irrigation projects would 
be undertaken and work on the necessary dams, reser- 
Toirs, and ditch systems be commenced. 

The resources of New Mexico, while probably not as 
rich as those of more northerly states, are yet diversified 
and largely undeveloped. The annual output of gold and 
silver is increasing, and seems likely to continue indefi- 
nitely to do so. A fine quality of coal is found in large 
quantities, and is an important item of regular income. 
The area of merchantable timber is said to amount to 
five million acres, and that of woodlands, useful for fuel 
and fencing, is much more extensive. There are four 
forest reserves with a total area of 5,125,000 acres. The 
mining of precious stones, which dates back to the Span- 
ish conquest, is a fiourishing and growing industry. The 
turquoise mines are particularly rich and profitable. 

346 



THE AWAKENING OF NEW MEXICO 

Though the amount of their production is closely 
guarded, it is known to be large, while the quality of the 
stone is equal to that of Eussia, Persia, and the East 
Indies. 

The social fabric of the Territory is a curious blend- 
ing of Mexican peons, of town-building Indians, of hardy 
frontiersmen engaged in mining and stock-raising, and 
of enterprising newcomers who believe in the future of 
the country. Of these elements, the Mexicans are the 
most numerous. They do not differ materially from their 
kinsmen on the southern side of the Rio Grande. Living 
in scattered settlements along the mountain streams, 
they enjoy a comfortable existence in return for their 
humble labor. The Indian population includes the 
Pueblos, the Zunis, the Navajos, and the Apaches, and 
is marvellously interesting, and usually peaceful and in- 
dustrious. The condition of these Indians is being slowly 
improved by the construction of irrigation works for their 
benefit, and other means. The growth of the white 
population has been slow, but will increase rapidly with 
the development of irrigation. 

New Mexico is one of the American communities 
whose greatness is of the future. Well endowed with raw 
materials, it awaits the impulse to be imparted by the 
new century and the pressure of an outreaching civil- 
ization. It is distinctly a land of opportunity, and one 
of the few remaining spots where settlers of small means 
can hope to prosper now, without awaiting the slow de- 
velopment of resources by the National Government. A 
Bureau of Immigration is maintained by the Territory, 
for the purpose of supplying information to intending 
settlers. The Secretary's address is Santa Fe. 

247 



CHAPTER XI 

THE BUDDING CIVILIZATIOIf OF ARIZONA 

Arizona is a land apart. "With the single exception 
of southeastern California, it differs in many respects 
from all other sections of western America. This is es- 
pecially true of all those portions of the Territory which 
will sustain the densest future population and develop 
the characteristic institutions of the country. 

Speaking of its atmosphere — the product of its pe- 
culiar climatic conditions and physical environment — 
Whitelaw Reid has said : " It seems to have about the 
same bracing and exhilarating qualities as the air of the 
Great Sahara Desert in northern Africa, or of the des- 
ert about Mount Sinai, in Arabia. It is much drier 
than in the part of Morocco, Algiers, or Tunis usually 
visited, and drier than any part of the valley of the Nile 
north of the First Cataract. It seems to me about the 
same in quality as the air on the Nile between Assouan 
and Wady-Halfa, but somewhat cooler." 

This description of the Arizona air, which is remark- 
ably happy, may be accepted as a key to the true char- 
acter of the country. It is a semi-tropical desert, like 
the region about the southern and eastern shores of the 
Mediterranean, where civilization was born of the ancient 
art of irrigation. This is said with reference to the 

248 



BUDDING CIVILIZATION OF ARIZONA 

southern and western parts of the Territory, which are 
drained by the Gila and Colorado rivers. Northern Ari- 
zona is distinguished by its mines, its notable forests, 
and the indescribable grandeurs of the famous Colorado 
canyon. The southeastern quarter, which adjoins New 
Mexico, is a great pasture, bearing scanty or generous 
crops of nutritious wild grasses, according as the season 
is dry or wet. 

The Salt Kiver Valley is the glory of Arizona. Ap- 
proaching it from either of the transcontinental rail- 
ways the traveller sees naught but the gray desert soil, 
marked by the gnarled branches of the mesquite and the 
slender pillar of the cactus. Even the mountain-sides 
appear to be devoid of verdure and tanned to a dark 
brown by the sunshine of centuries. But suddenly all 
the beauties of the Garden of Eden burst upon the aston- 
ished gaze of the visitor. Wherever the waters of irri- 
gation have moistened the desert, and man has planted 
the seed of grass, flower, or tree, the most luxuriant 
vegetation has sprung from the soil to revolutionize the 
appearance of the country. 

The capital city of Phoenix — risen from the ashes of a 
forgotten people — is the pulsating heart of the new life 
of Arizona. Here are modern business blocks, hand- 
some public buildings, busy stores, a promising uni- 
versity, and hundreds of beautiful homes resting under 
the shade of palm, magnolia, and pepper-trees, Tucson 
and Yuma, though thriving and populous, are Mexican 
in architecture and habits. Prescott, Flagstaff, and nu- 
merous other communities in the higher altitude are the 
products of the mining industry. But Phoenix is distinct- 
ly modern, and almost wholly the offspring of irrigation. 

249 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The Salt river is the largest tributary of the Gila. It 
has been the scene of active irrigation enterprise since 
1867, but particularly during the last ten years. It is an 
interesting fact that the works first built followed the 
lines of prehistoric canals. Reclamation has been ex- 
tended to both sides of the valley, but cultivation is 
oldest and much the most extensive on the northern 
side, around Phoenix. Here a number of canals were 
consolidated into a single system, the managers of which 
have made improvements and extensions year by year, 
and gradually evolved a work of great perfection and 
completeness. 

On the south side of the river a similar consolidation 
has occurred. Here settlement was begun in 1878 by 
Mormon colonists, who founded the charming place now 
known as Mesa City. There are several independent 
irrigation systems upon this side of the valley, the most 
important of which is the Highland Canal, which runs 
along a high level and waters thirty thousand acres of 
valuable land. Water-power is obtained in connection 
with the irrigation canals on both sides of the valley, 
and electrical power is applied both to lighting and 
transportation. 

Tributaries of the Salt river flowing from the moun- 
tains on the north, notably the Rio Verde and the Agua 
Fria, will furnish water for new and large enterprises. 
Storage is the feature of these works, and reservoirs 
have been constructed in a number of instances. Both 
on the upper and lower courses of the Gila river im- 
portant irrigation canals are planned, and a number 
have been completed. Much difficulty has been experi- 
enced in building enduring dams along this erratic 

250 







THE REDKEMKU DESERT IN' ARIZONA. — I. Harvcstinj^ Third Crop of 
Alfalfa, near Yuma. 2. Irrigated Barley Crop, Yuma Valley. 



BUDDINGCIVILIZATIONOFAEIZONA 

stream. Sudden and powerful floods sweep down the 
valley during the season of melting snows, and it is the 
nicest engineering problem to make constructions which 
will stand the test. 

In the first edition of this book, issued in 1900, I said 
of the valleys of the Gila and Salt Elvers : " The agri- 
cultural districts suffer for lack of water during the dry 
summer season, when water is most needed. The only 
possible solution of the problem will be construction of 
large reservoir systems at the mountain sources of the 
streams. Nature has provided phenomenal facilities for 
such storage works, but the opportunity has not been 
utilized, owing to the large cost involved and to the fact 
that no single company could afford to make improve- 
ments which would be equally beneficial to all who draw 
supplies from these streams. The work is of such im- 
portance as to justify an expenditure of public money, 
especially as large areas of public lands would be made 
habitable in consequence." 

The truth of these statements has long been understood 
by well-informed men in the Territory. Thus Governor 
Brodie, in his Annual Report to the Secretary of the In- 
terior for 1904, says: "To-day we are forced to admit 
that there is not a valley in the Territory where land is 
available to the homesteader where he can settle do^Ti 
to the successful pursuit of agriculture with the inde- 
pendence of a Mississippi Valley farmer. . . . With a 
great system of water storage established in Arizona all 
public land susceptible of irrigation will be at the disposal 
of the husbandman. There will be land for millions 
where there is to-day scarcely enough for the present 

251 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

population. Arizona contains more than ten million 
acres of land that can be cultivated." 

This vital need of water storage is now being supplied 
by national enterprise in the Salt River Valley and on the 
Colorado River. The interest of the people in irrigation 
development was shown by the enactment of a law au- 
thorizing the bonding of counties for the construction of 
public storage works, and by the creation of a Territorial 
Water-Storage Commission, prior to the passage of the 
national irrigation law. The average annual precipita- 
tion in the Salt River Valley for the past twenty years 
was only 6.9 inches, which makes farming without irri- 
gation impossible. The passage of the national irriga- 
tion law and the prompt and intelligent action of the 
ofhcials of the Reclamation Service greatly pleased the 
people of Arizona, who see in this development under 
the competent guidance of the Nation a lively hope of 
becoming a great agricultural community. The lands 
capable of being reclaimed are not alone the many fertile 
valleys, but the elevated table-lands as well, which are 
very rich and of enormous extent. A sum far in excess 
of the total amount now in the reclamation fund could be 
expended in this Territory, with the result of making 
homes for thousands of prosperous people. 

The climate of Arizona varies widely with different 
altitudes. In those portions of the Territory most favor- 
able to settlement, including the Salt River and Gila 
Valleys, newcomers find the summer heat somewhat try- 
ing. Old settlers, who know how to adapt themselves to 
their environment, do not find the heat oppressive ; but it 
is something for a newcomer to take seriously into aC' 

253 



BUDDING CIVILIZATION OF ARIZONA 

count. In the more northerly portions of the Territory, 
however, the climate is wholly different and the disad- 
vantage of extreme heat far less. Throughout the whole 
of the Territory, the winters are delightful. 

In the Salt River Valley, all classes of fruit have been 
tested sufficiently to furnish reliable conclusions as to 
the range of production. The climate is semi-tropical 
and the products similar to those of the lowland districts 
of California and the region around the Mediterranean. 

Government reports show that the highest and lowest 
temperatures at Phoenix averaged for eight years, as 
follows: November, 78| and 42; December, 73| and 
36^; January, 65^ and 32; February, 71^ and 
35|; March, 81^ and 41; April, 86| and 46. Orange 
trees successfully withstand a temperature of 28° 
above zero. Hence, it is no surprise to find them grow- 
ing successfully in the Salt River Valley, at Yuma, and 
elsewhere in central and southern Arizona. The deter- 
mination of the exact limits of the citrus belt is a nice 
problem in any country. A certain elevation above the 
river, and a certain amount of protection from the wind 
and from the rising sun, are essential. The most favored 
spots are usually those which are screened from the first 
rays of the morning sun by a background of eastern hills. 
This condition permits a gradual warming of the atmos- 
phere, so that if there has been a slight frost during the 
night no serious harm is done to fruit or tree. 

Wherever oranges can be grown at all, the area suit- 
able for their production is likely to be exaggerated by 
those who sell climate by the acre. While the orange 
districts of Arizona are not as yet perfectly defined, there 

253 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

is no longer any question of the production of citrus 
fruit nor as to its quality and the early date at which it 
ripens. It anticipates the Southern California crop in 
the market, though not the crop of Northern California, 
which is several weeks ahead of the southern product. 

Wherever the orange can be cultivated, the less tender 
semi-tropical fruits — figs, olives, almonds, pomegranates 
— may be certainly counted upon to grow even more 
surely and over a large area. The largest fig orchard in 
the United States, and one of the largest in the world, is 
located in the Salt Eiver Valley. This industry has not 
yet proven profitable, either in Arizona or California, 
speaking broadly, for the reason that our people have not 
all mastered the art of curing and packing, though much 
progress has been made at Fresno. The other products 
mentioned are thoroughly successful. So also are the 
finest qualities of raisin, wine, and tal:)le grapes, and of 
the deciduous fruits, such as peaches, apricots, prunes, 
pears, and apples. Yuma lays down table grapes in San 
Francisco before the California product is in the market. 
With better railroad facilities and rates, Arizona would 
be a strong competitor of Florida and the West Indies in 
the shipment of early vegetables to eastern and northern 
markets. At the government experiment station near 
Tempe is a date orchard of eleven acres, and there are 
strong hopes that this new industry will take root and 
prosper throughout the southern portion of the arid 
region. 

The major portion of the irrigated land is tilled in 
large farms devoted to grasses and cereals. Alfalfa is 
the favorite fodder crop, and the valleys are great feed- 

254 




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BUDDING CIVILIZATION OF AEIZONA 

ing grounds for cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep. While 
stock-raising is important, it is in a less prosperous con- 
dition than formerly, on account of prolonged droughts, 
especially that of the year 1903, which caused great loss. 
As irrigation development progresses, the raising of live 
stock on large areas vs^ill give way to the intensive culti- 
vation of small areas, to which the conditions of soil and 
climate are extremely favorable. 

Ten acres in southern Arizona constitutes a good-sized 
farm. Variously planted to vegetables, small fruits, 
orchards, and grass, and cultivated by the most modern 
methods, such a farm should yield a far better living and 
make a surer provision for old age than one hundred acres 
in the Eastern or Middle States, which depend upon rain- 
fall, and consequently produce the cheaper class of crops. 

Arizona is very rich in minerals and its development 
has brought a considerable degree of prosperity in the 
past few years. Copper is now the principal product, 
having made the phenomenal growth of from two mil- 
lion pounds in 1880 to two hundred and thirty million 
pounds in 1904. In 1903, the Territory held third place 
in copper production, being exceeded only by Michigan 
and Montana ; it now claims the second place, and, if the 
great Cananea mines, situated a short distance over the 
boundary line in Mexico and virtually dependent upon 
Arizona for their development, were included, it would 
be entitled to first place. The value of the product for 
1904 was nearly thirty million dollars, and the larger 
portion of it was manufactured in the Territory. The 
production of gold, silver, and lead is also large, and 
rapidly increasing. 

255 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

Although Arizona is popularly regarded as a treeless 
region, it counts among its natural resources one of the 
largest forests in the world. This is the " Mogollon 
Forest/' covering an area of ten thousand square miles. 
There are eight forest reserves in the Territory. 

An interesting industrial development of late years is 
the raising of ostriches. In the Salt River Valley, near 
Phoenix, it has been demonstrated that they will thrive 
and produce feathers profitably. There are now more 
than sixteen hundred birds on this farm, which feed con- 
tentedly in the alfalfa pastures. 

Lacking nothing in general advantages, Arizona has 
suffered from the popular belief that there is a deficiency 
of the higher forms of industrial and social development 
which have made portions of California the paradise of 
the common people and which are now rapidly shaping 
the institutions of the arid region. That this impression 
is passing away is evidenced by the fact that Arizona's 
population increased 104.9 per cent, between 1890 and 
1900, and is still growing rapidly. The broad founda- 
tions of an intense economic life have been well and sub- 
stantially laid, and the superstructure is rapidly rising. 
As the work progresses more and more, it will be under- 
stood how little the country has been appreciated, and it 
would be rash to attempt to predict its future greatness. 

The people of Arizona have been drawn from many 
different sources and from more than one race, but the 
pushing American element is distinctly dominant. While 
there are many lower-class Mexicans, they are much less 
numerous here than in New Mexico, and less widely dif- 
fused over the Territory. The Indians, who are seen 

256 



BUDDINGCIVILIZ A TIONOF ARIZONA 

everywhere, even in the best settled districts, are inoffen- 
sive and usually industrious. Like the Mexican peons, 
they are useful laborers in the simpler agricultural and 
manufacturing tasks. There are many tribes, some of 
which were warlike in recent years, but these are now 
kept closely confined to their reservations and no longer 
constitute a menace to settlement. 

Arizona has developed a spirit of intense local pride 
which bodes well for its future greatness. It is a good 
recommendation for any country when those who know it 
best exhibit the most confidence in its future. It is to 
be hoped that the energetic and optimistic people of Ari- 
zona may realize their high ambitions, including their 
laudable desire for statehood. 

The settler intending to go to Arizona will find his 
best opportunities under the progressive development of 
the United States Reclamation Service. The oppor- 
tunities for private enterprise, except to large capital, 
are practically exhausted. 



R 257 



part JFourtb 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOVEMENT 

" The passage of the National Irrigation Law is one of the 
great steps not only in the progress of the United States, but of 
all mankind. It is the beginning of an achievement so great 
that we hesitate to predict the outcome." — Theodore Roosevelt. 

"It is men with hearts who have done it ; men with imagi- 
nation, illumination, prophecy, conscience. The fact that it 
pays is important, but it is secondary. If the business argument 
could not have been sustained, the movement would have died, 
but without the moral force the business argument would have 
shriveled like a leaf in the sand. The architects and builders 
of this great plan of redemption are and have been men of heart 
as well as brain, men of tact and of love for humanity, as well 
as men of firm convictions and shrewd business sense, men who 
look on an acre of land or a gold coin merely as a token to be 
used for the betterment of humanity." — El Paso, Texas, Herald, 
June 17, 1905, 



259 




JOHN WESLEY POWELL.— First Scientific Explorer of the Arid Kcion. 



CHAPTER I 



THE RISE OF A NEW CAUSE 



The true history of irrigation in America would in- 
volve a comprehensive study of the life of the Western 
people during the past two generations, with a study 
of certain communities which trace their civil- 
ization to a period much more remote. The facts for 
such a history would be found in the record of explo- 
ration and colonization, in the expansion of pioneer 
camps into villages, cities, and States, in the evolution of 
a multiplicity of laws and judicial decisions concerning 
land and water. For irrigation is the life-blood of insti- 
tutions in the Western half of the continent and its his- 
tory is, in a marked degree, the history of the people 
themselves. In this chapter the subject will be sketched 
in relation to one aspect only, — the birth and progress of 
the organized movement which finally led to the adoption 
of a new policy of internal improvement by the United 
States. 

First on the roll of irrigation champions stands the 
name of John Wesley Powell. He was a soldier, a poet, 
a scientist, a lover of his kind, but in no sense a man of 
practical commercial instincts. It is worth while to note 
this fact, because the West owes much to men of another 
type — men who saw the opportunity to make great for- 
tunes in the development of the country and whose busi- 

261 



THE CONQUEST OF AKID AMEEICA 

ness enterprises were conceived and executed upon so 
magnificent a scale that they are entitled to remembrance 
among the builders of empire. Collis P. Huntington, 
James J. Hill, William J, Palmer, William A. Clark, 
and a hundred others, wielded large capital, built rail- 
roads, opened mines, and prepared the way for millions. 
Brigham Young organized a host of settlers, turned the 
mountain streams upon the soil of the desert, directed the 
growth of towns, industries, and farming communities. 
These, and ten thousand men of lesser achievement, were 
of the practical sort indispensable to the work of trans- 
forming a wilderness into a seat of civilization. 

Major Powell was entirely different and, perhaps, the 
most distinguished type of another class which has con- 
tributed in its own way to the conquest of Arid America. 
He did not invest money, but he invested ideas. He was 
not interested in making a fortune for himself, but in 
making a fortune for the Nation, for humanity. He 
saw the West with the eyes of a prophet and, with splen- 
did imagination, beheld not only the opportunity which 
awaited a great people, but the measures which must be 
adopted to take best advantage of the opportunity. He 
was the kind of man who is commonly regarded as an 
enthusiast and a visionary until his dreams come true — 
the kind of man, as Elbert Hubbard said of another, 
doomed '' to become rotting logs which will nourish banks 
of violets." It should not be inferred that he accom- 
plished nothing in his lifetime. On the contrary, he 
accomplished much, but it was in the nature of preli- 
minary work. The great results he was not given to see 
with mortal eyes. 

262 



THE EISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

After the Civil War, in which lie had borne a conspicu- 
ous part, Major Powell became geographer, geologist, 
ethnologist, and explorer of the arid region. His daring 
descent of the Colorado Eiver is one of the historical 
episodes of the Far Southwest, but it was no deed of idle 
heroism. He was engaged in looking the country in the 
face, that he might know what it held for the future of 
men. His report entitled, " The Lands of the Arid 
Eegion," was one of those rare public documents which 
becomes classic literature. His preliminary work in the 
examination of arid public lands was carried on under 
the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and, later, 
under an organization or bureau of the Department of 
the Interior known as the United States Geographical 
and Geological Survey of the Eocky Mountain Eegion. 
In 1879 this and other surveys maintained by the various 
departments of the Government were discontinued, and 
in their place a single bureau, the present United States 
Geological Survey, was created. Clarence King was the 
first Director, but he was succeeded after a few months 
by Major Powell, who then organized the work that laid 
the foundation of the great irrigation development which 
has transpired, and is to transpire upon a much larger 
scale in the future, in the Western States and Territories. 

The first requirement of progress was exact informa- 
tion. It was necessary that the public lands should be 
classified, that the streams should be measured and 
mapped, that reservoir sites should be discovered and ex- 
plored, and that the whole physical basis of the region, 
including its climate, should be reduced to a matter of 
scientific knowledge. This meant nothing less than the 

263 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

preparation of a complete topographical map, drawn 
in such detail that it should show all the elevations by 
means of contours, the location of streams, towns, roads, 
railroads, canals, isolated houses, and boundaries of 
States, counties, and towns. For a quarter of a century 
this work has gone forward until, at last, the secrets of 
the wilderness have been brought to light and the way 
prepared for its occupation by the hosts of civilization. 
The results are preserved in a number of annual reports 
covering what is popularly known as "the Powell Irri- 
gation Survey." 

In 1887 Congress recognized the importance of the 
investigation in its relation to practical progress and 
large appropriations were made for the study of specific 
reservoir sites. In 1889 a committee of the United States 
Senate, headed by Senator Stewart of Nevada, made a 
personal investigation of the arid region by means of an 
extended tour, and gave public hearings at numerous 
points. 

Up to 1890 there was nothing which could be regarded 
as a public sentiment in support of irrigation as a broad 
economic movement and, much less, anything in the 
nature of organized public sentiment. Neither was there 
a popular literature to bring the matter to the attention 
of the masses. Irrigation was an unpleasant word, re- 
pellent and depressing. The word "arid" was synony- 
mous with worthlessness. Scientific men like Major 
Powell, social reformers like Richard J. Hinton, and a 
few members of Congress who urged appropriations to 
assist Western development, were not taken seriously by 
the country at large. It was felt that they were ahead 

264 



THE RISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

of their time and that at best there could be nothing but 
a sectional interest in the matter with which they dealt. 
There was no appreciation of the magnitude of the op- 
portunity awaiting the Nation in the West, nor of the 
social and political significance of the work which must 
ultimately be done. 

Such was the situation when the region of the Great 
Plains was overtaken by the drought of 1890, a calamity 
so deep and widespread that it staggered even the optim- 
ism of the West. While it was known and frankly ac- 
knowledged that irrigation was necessary in many locali- 
ties west of the Rocky Mountains, the men of the semi- 
arid plains clung stubbornly to the belief that, in some 
mysterious manner, rainfall increased with railroad 
building, settlement, and the cultivation of the land. 
This delusion was effectually dispelled by the great 
drought, as related in a previous chapter. The psycho- 
logical moment had come for the rise of a new cause 
which should take hold of the popular heart and go on, 
by a process of gradual unfoldment, until it became per- 
haps the greatest constructive movement of its time. Of 
this new and momentous epoch in Western history I am 
able to speak at first hand, since I can say, in the words 
of the ancient chronicler, " all of which I saw, and a 
part of which I wa^." * 

*" Popular interest in irrigation was greatly stimulated by 
the discussion arising out of the Powell Irrigation Survey and 
the controversies over the report of the Senate Committee on 
Irrigation. This led finally to the holding of a series of national 
irrigation congresses, the prime mover in which was Mr. Wm. 
E. Smythe, of San Diego, Cal. The first was held in Salt Lake 
City, Utah, September 15 to 17, 1891." — First Annual Report of 
the United States Reclaviation Service, 

265 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

In 1890 I was an editorial writer on the Omaha Bee, 
under that strong and able leader of Nebraska public 
opinion, Edward Eosewater. During the previous sum- 
mer I had made a brief trip to the Maxwell land grant 
in New Mexico and for the first time saw men engaged 
in turning water upon land to make good the deficiencies 
of rainfall. I suppose I had heard or read the word 
" irrigation/' though I have no recollection of it. Cer- 
tainly, the word meant nothing to me until the drought 
struck Nebraska a year later. Then the thought oc- 
curred to me that the several fine streams flowing through 
the state might be employed to excellent advantage. 
Men were shooting their horses and abandoning their 
farms, within sight of these streams. There were the 
soil, the sunshine, and the waters, but the people did not 
understand the secret of prosperity, even with such broad 
hints before their eyes. 

I thought of the thrifty orchards and gardens I had 
seen on the Las Animas and the Vermejo a few hundred 
miles farther southwest, and when Mr. Eosewater di- 
rected me to write editorials urging the public to con- 
tribute money, food, and seed for the drought-stricken 
farmers of Nebraska, I suggested that these should be 
supplemented by a series of papers dealing with the 
possibilities of irrigation. He gave me permission to do 
so on condition that I would sign the articles myself, 
as it was then considered little less than a libel to say 
that irrigation was needed in that part of the country. 

How many lives those articles influenced, or are even 
yet to influence through the forces they set in motion, I 
do not know; but they changed my life completely. I 

266 



THE RISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

had taken the cross of a new crusade. To my mind, 
irrigation seemed the biggest thing in the world. It was 
not merely a matter of ditches and acres, but a philos- 
ophy, a religion, and a programme of practical statesman- 
ship rolled into one. There was apparently no such 
thing as ever getting to the bottom of the subject, for it 
expanded in all directions and grew in importance with 
each unfoldment. Of course, all this was not realized 
at first, yet from the beginning I was deeply impressed 
with the magnitude of the work that had fallen to my 
hand and knew that I must cut loose from all other 
interests and endeavor to rouse the Nation to a realizing 
sense of its duty and opportunity. 

The first result of the articles in the Bee was a series 
of irrigation conventions in western Nebraska, beginning 
with the one at Culbertson, the seat of Hitchcock County. 
These county gatherings led to a state convention at 
Lincoln, and the state convention made me chairman of a 
committee to arrange for a National Irrigation Congress, 
which was held a few months later at Salt Lake, within 
sight of the historic ditch on City Creek where English- 
speaking men began the conquest of the desert. 

I resigned my comfortable place on the Bee, launched 
The Irrigation Age (the first journal of its kind in the 
world, so far as I know), and went forth to do what I 
could. It was my rare good fortune to find a life-work, 
while yet on the sunny side of thirty, to which I could 
give my heart and soul with all a young man's enthusi- 
asm. 

It would be entirely erroneous to give the impression 
that the Irrigation Congress began its history by advo- 

267 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

eating the policy of improvement which finally prevailed. 
It was clearly realized that there was an enormous work 
to be done, and that this work could not be accomplished 
under laws then in existence nor by exclusive dependence 
upon private enterprise. But in 1891 there was no such 
sentiment for public ownership as now prevails. Specu- 
lation in water was considered as legitimate as specula- 
tion in land or mines. Moreover, it seemed scarcely 
conceivable that the Nation could be interested, within 
the lifetime of men then active in the West, to the 
extent of building reservoirs and canals and executing 
a great plan of colonizing arid lands. The most that 
was then hoped for was that Congress could be induced 
to cede the lands to the several States and Territories in 
which they were situated, and that when land and water 
were thus brought under one jurisdiction, laws could be 
devised to facilitate development. Each State would 
then be left to frame its own policy and the rivalry which 
would naturally ensue would inaugurate an era of tre- 
mendous activity. 

This view was so generally entertained that Governor 
Arthur L. Thomas, in issuing his invitation for the 
meeting in Utah, set it forth in his formal call. The 
chief object of the convention was to consider the cession 
of the arid lands to the States. After several days dis- 
cussion, in which the leading men of the West partici- 
pated, the plan was approved without a dissenting vote, 
although J. W. Gregory, a delegate from Kansas, had 
pointed out certain perils inherent in the policy, in a 
speech which commanded attention. 

The Salt Lake Congress precipitated a discussion 

268 



THE RISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

throughout the country which resulted in the gradual 
growth of deep distrust in the plan of cession. It was 
strongly opposed by the leading newspapers of Cali- 
fornia, on the ground that all previous experience of the 
kind showed that the Western States would not deal 
wisely or honestly with such a grant. It was argued 
that the lands could not be utilized without a vast ex- 
penditure of capital, and that the inevitable way of ob- 
taining this capital would be through the gift of the 
public lands to private interests, which would convert 
them into great estates. In a word, the movement was 
denounced as a gigantic scheme of land-grabbing, though 
it undoubtedly represented the best thought of the 
Western people at that time. It was seen that something 
must be done; it was perfectly obvious that the Nation 
would do nothing involving the expenditure of large 
sums from its own treasury; it was believed that if the 
States could obtain the land they would devise a means 
of preparing them for settlement. However, the opposi- 
tion was strong enough to hold the movement in check 
and to create an interest in the discussion which was 
doubtless indispensable to progress of any kind. 

The Second Irrigation Congress was held at Los 
Angeles, California, in 1893, and gained great dis- 
tinction from its international character. Delegates were 
present from many foreign countries and the tone of 
discussion was entirely different from that at the Salt 
Lake meeting, two years previous. The keynote of the 
official pronouncement was that "the irrigation question 
is national in its essence." Lionel A. Sheldon, chair- 
man of the committee on resolutions, aroused extraor- 

269 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

dinary enthusiasm when he declared his opinion that the 
arid lands would never he reclaimed until the Nation 
itself built the reservoirs and canals. But the convention 
wisely recognized that public opinion was not ready to 
support a specific proposal along this line, not even 
public opinion in the West. Consequently, it proceeded 
to organize commissions from its own membership in 
every State and Territory of the arid region, to canvass 
public sentiment and frame a plan for presentation at 
the next Congress. 

The third meeting was held at Denver, Colorado, in 
1894. The State commissions were unable to agree upon 
any comprehensive policy to be urged upon the lawmakers 
at Washington. But they advocated four steps of prog- 
ress: first, the reform and unification of local water laws 
for the several States; second, the repeal of the desert 
land law; third, increased appropriations for the in- 
vestigation of water supplies; fourth, the creation of a 
national commission to devise plans for the reclamation 
of arid lands. Subsequent sessions of the Irrigation 
Congress, held at Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1895 ; at 
Phoenix, Arizona, in 1896; at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 
1897; at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1898; and at Missoula, 
Montana, in 1899 ; followed the same lines, but with grow- 
ing insistence on the national obligation to make the pub- 
lic domain fit for settlement by direct action of some kind. 

While the cession movement inaugurated at Salt Lake 
had lost most of its force. Senator Warren, of Wyoming, 
introduced a bill to carry it into effect. It was not 
seriously considered by Congress. His colleague. Sen- 
ator Carey, succeeded in passing a bill granting a million 

270 








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THE RISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

acres to each of the States. Several accepted the gift 
and considerable development resulted from the policy, 
the common method being to grant to corporations the 
right to irrigate the land and dispose of it to settlers. 

If the year 1879 is notable in irrigation history be- 
cause of the publication of Major Powell's report on 
" The Lands of the Arid Region," and the year 1891 be- 
cause of the organization of the National Irrigation 
Congress, the year 1897 is memorable because of new 
forces which came into it and exerted a powerful influ- 
ence in shaping events. In the latter year Captain 
Hiram M. Chittenden, of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. 
A., published his report on " Reservoirs in the Arid 
Region." He had formerly been in charge of govern- 
ment works in the Yellowstone National Park and on 
important Western rivers. He had delved deep into 
the history of all the movements of population in the 
Far West and given much thought to the future civiliza- 
tion of the region. He looked upon the subject with the 
mind of a man trained in the government school of 
thought. Assigned to the study of reservoir problems 
on certain rivers of the West, he recommended that the 
Government should acquire full title and jurisdiction 
to any reservoir site which it might improve, and full 
right to the water necessary to fill the reservoir; also 
that it should build, own, and operate the works, holding 
the stored waters absolutely free for public use under 
local regulations. 

The Chittenden report represented the break of day. 
Here was a clear suggestion of a workable plan, coming 
with the force of a recommendation from a distinguished 

271 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

engineer in the War Department. What was needed at 
this juncture was an organized propaganda, alive, tire- 
less, sleepless. Tlie Irrigation Congress had done a 
great work and years of usefulness were yet reserved to 
it. But it had no funds or paid officers. It met but 
once a year at widely separated points and always with a 
different membership. The time had now come when 
the cause required a working organism quite as effective 
as that of a church, a political party, or a great business 
enterprise. 

This need was met by George H. Maxwell and his 
National Irrigation Association, the latter formed at 
Wichita, Kansas, in 1897, at the close of a meeting of 
the Trans-Mississippi Congress. Mr. Maxwell was an 
energetic young lawyer of California, with a remarkable 
talent for organization and a gift of forceful and elo- 
quent speech. He was one of the numerous converts of 
the Irrigation Congress, which he joined at the Phoenix 
convention in the previous year. He determined to 
abandon his law practice and devote himself exclusively 
to the irrigation propaganda and the solution of other 
social problems which, as he clearly foresaw, must go 
hand-in-hand with the great scheme of reclaiming mil- 
lions of acres of arid lands. The National Irrigation 
Association was not to supplant, but to strengthen and 
supplement, the pioneer institution, the National Irri- 
gation Congress. 

Mr. Maxwell saw that nothing could be done without 
a promotion fund. There must be offices in leading 
cities, periodicals and newspaper bureaus, and constant 
activity on the platform. Who should finance the great 

273 



THE EISE OF A NEW CAUSE 

undertaking? Why not the numerous industrial and 
transportation interests, who would be the inevitable 
beneficiaries of new agricultural districts throughout 
the Western half of the continent and the resulting move- 
ment of people and products? Mr. Maxwell believed 
that if the managers of these enterprises understood their 
true interests, they would give liberal support to a work 
of this kind. He proceeded to convince them of the fact, 
and was thus enabled to carry on the propaganda with a 
vigor and success unprecedented in the history of the 
movement. He found an able and indefatigable lieu- 
tenant in Mr. C. B. Boothe, a prominent merchant of 
Los Angeles, California. 

The Ninth Irrigation Congress assembled at Chicago in the 
autumn of 1900 and adopted ringing resolutions in favor of a 
comprehensive national system for the storage of floods and the 
reclamation of public lands. It demanded the abolition of water 
monopoly, insisting that water be made appurtenant to tlie land 
irrigated and that beneficial use be the basis, the measure, and 
the limit of the right. 

The politicians were not slow to recognize the appear- 
ance of a new issue on the horizon. Thus in 1900, nine 
years after the first Irrigation Congress at Salt Lake 
and three years subsequent to the Chittenden report and 
the formation of the National Irrigation Association, the 
three great parties placed the following planks in their 
platforms : 

Republican Platform. 

In further pursuance of the constant policy of the Republican 
party to provide free homes on the public domain, we recom- 
mend adequate national legislation to reclaim the arid lands of 
T 278 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

the United States, reserving control of the distribution of water 
for irrigation to the respective States and Territories. 

Democratic Platform. 

We favor an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of 
the West, storing the waters for the purposes of irrigation, and 
the holding of such lands for actual settlers. 

Silver Republican Platform. 

We believe the National Government should lend every aid, 
encouragement, and assistance toward the reclamation of the 
arid lands of the United States, and to that end we are in favor 
of a comprehensive survey thereof, and an immediate ascertain- 
ment of the water supply available for such reclamation, and 
we believe it to be the duty of the general government to 
provide for the construction of storage reservoirs and irrigation 
works, so that the water supply of the arid region may be 
utilized to the greatest possible extent in the interests of the 
people while preserving all rights of the State. 

The first stage of the battle had been won. Irriga- 
tion was squarely before the American people as a ques- 
tion which must be dealt with. It was no longer merely 
the dream of enthusiasts, but a subject which thundered 
at the door of Congress and demanded the attention of 
practical statesmanship. 



874 



CHAPTER II 

ON THE ANVIL OF CONGRESS 

For many years prior to the indorsement of a na- 
tional irrigation policy by the great political parties, 
Western Senators and Eepresentatives had been in the 
habit of introducing bills aiming at the reclamation of 
arid lands in their own States or districts. These meas- 
ures were fruitless, not only because the East had not 
yet given its assent to this form of internal improvement, 
but because it was impossible to unite the West in favor 
of appropriations for any particular locality. Each 
neighborhood stood ready to cheer " for the old flag and 
an appropriation," but could evoke no enthusiasm when 
it was proposed to spend the appropriation in some 
other neighborhood. 

The West had not learned its lesson thoroughly when 
the Fifty-sixth Congress assembled for its final session, 
on December 3, 1900. It had not devised a way to 
overcome Eastern and Southern opposition to direct 
appropriations nor to unite its own members on a single, 
comprehensive plan of development. President McKin- 
ley made no mention of irrigation in his message. On 
the very first day of the session, Eepresentative John F. 
Shafroth of Colorado introduced a bill calling for an 
appropriation of thirteen million dollars for the reclama- 
tion of arid lands. It was not a local bill, but it pro- 

275 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

posed to take the money straight from the national 
treasury, conceding nothing to the prejudices of the 
East or the South on that subject. There was, therefore, 
no hope of its success. Representatives Newlauds of 
Nevada and Bell of Colorado followed with bills aiming 
at peculiar benefits for their own States. These meas- 
ures were impossible, because the West would not unite 
on them. 

On January 26, 1901, the national irrigation cause 
saw its first real daylight in the halls of Congress. It 
was upon that memorable date that Francis G, New- 
lands, then Representative and now Senator, from 
Nevada, introduced the first of a series of measures, each 
an improvement upon its predecessor, but all based upon 
the same fundamental principles and all widely discussed 
by press, public, and law-makers, under the general 
title of " the Newlands bill.'' A comparison of the orig- 
inal measure of January 26 with the present law as it 
stands upon the statute books amply justifies the use of 
the Nevadan's name as the real author of the present 
successful policy.* 

The Newlands Bill proposed a continuing appropria- 
tion to be derived from the sale of public lands, and put 
this appropriation at the disposal of the Secretary of the 
Interior for use not only in making investigations, but 
for actual construction of reservoirs and canals. This 

* The original " Newlands bill" of January 26, 1901, together 
with the full text of the famous Act of June 17, 1902, are 
published in the Appendix of this volume, for the benefit of 
those who desire to put this statement to the test of critical 
analysis. 

276 




FRANCIS G. XEWLANDS. — Whose famous irrigation bill became the 
foundation of a New National Policy. 



ON THE ANVIL OF CONGRESS 

was the foundation principle of the law enacted on June 
17, 1902. 

None save those quite familiar with the difficulties 
which must be surmounted in order to obtain the neces- 
sary support to pass any irrigation law, and then to have 
it workable in the highest degree without constant atten- 
tion from Congress in the future, can possibly appreciate 
how remarkably this measure was adapted to the situa- 
tion. It solved at a single stroke questions which could 
not have been solved in any other way except by years of 
effort and, probably, a considerable body of legislation. 

First of all, the plan disposed of the Eastern objection 
to direct appropriations from the treasury. Money re- 
ceived from the sale of public lands came exclusively 
from the West and the major portion of it from the 
arid region. It was money paid by homeseekers. Why 
should it not be expended in the West and for the purpose 
of making homes ? Certainly, it did not represent taxes 
paid by Eastern people. The argument against creating 
new competition for Eastern farmers could not stand 
alone. It must be supported by the further argument 
that it was unfair to tax the East for the specific purpose 
of creating such competition. No one was radical 
enough to say that there should be no new homes or farms 
in the United States and that the historic homestead 
policy must be utterly abandoned. This being so, the 
fiscal feature of the Newlands plan could not be success- 
fully attacked on either logical or patriotic grounds. In 
a word, it supplied the unanswerable solution of the most 
troublesome feature of the problem. 

Few realized at the time how completely the continuing 

277 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

appropriation, derived from the receipts for land sales, 
removed the question from the sphere of congressional 
action. It put at the disposal of the Secretary of the 
Interior a large and growing fund, to be expended and 
collected and used over and over, for an indefinite period 
in the future. It was no longer necessary to go to 
Congress and ask for the approval of a specific project, 
and for the money to build it. The money was provided 
in advance, while the Secretary had full power to make 
the investigations, approve a project, set apart the neces- 
sary funds, and proceed with its construction. So far 
as Congress was concerned, the measure was the most 
remarkable piece of automatic legislation ever devised. 
In subsequent pages we shall see how well it has worked 
in practical operation and what weary years have been 
saved by the concentration of such authority in the hands 
of the Secretary of the Interior. 

The plan also supplied the only satisfactory solution 
of the questions arising from local jealousies in the 
West. The money was available for irrigation in sixteen 
States and Territories. Investigations were to be made in 
all of them and the Secretary of the Interior was em- 
powered to determine where it was desirable to make 
improvements first. It was assumed that he would con- 
sider the claims of all localities and arrive at his con- 
clusions from the broad national standpoint. This ex- 
pectation has been fully met by the manner in which 
Secretary Hitchcock has administered the law. It is 
hardly to be believed that equally good results would 
have emerged from tlie hurly-burly of Congress if the 
matter had been handled after the manner of a river and 
harbor bill. 

278 




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a 
> 

O 



X 



y, 

a 



a 



y. 

X 



ON THE ANVIL OF CONGEESS 

Other important features of the measure which were 
later embodied in actual legislation, were these : provision 
for the withdrawal from entry, in the discretion of the 
Secretary of the Interior, of all public lands required for 
reservoirs or canals, or susceptible of irrigation from 
proposed works; pro-rating the cost among lands irri- 
gated and providing for the repayment of the amount to 
the reclamation fund in ten annual instalments ; making 
the water right perpetually appurtenant to the land, with 
beneficial use the basis, the measure, and the limit of the 
right; providing that land could be taken only under 
the homestead law, with its requirement for actual settle- 
ment ; and permitting the sale of water rights to land in 
private ownership, but only in small tracts. 

The virtues of the bill were promptly recognized by 
those most familiar with the needs of the West. Mr. 
Frederick H. Newell, then Chief Hydrographer of the 
Geological Survey and now Chief Engineer of the Recla- 
mation Service, testified before a Committee of Congress : 
" Mr. Newlands's general bill has been so worded as to 
avoid striking on all the snags which are impeding the 
progress of the development and reclamation of the arid 
lands." ]\Ir. George H. Maxwell, Executive Chairman 
of the National Irrigation Association, testified : 

" I wish to speak of the Newlands Bill, No. 14,088. I think a 
good name for it would be ' the omnibus bill.' It is undoubtedly- 
true that after fifteen or twenty years of Government investi- 
gation we are no further than we were at the beginning, so far 
as the actual reclamation of the land is concerned. Under this 
bill the Government can begin construction immediately and I 
believe along lines which remove every reasonable objection to 
the Government undertaking the great work of bringing about 

279 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

the reclamation of the arid lands. The first point which it 
seems to me is important in favor of the Newlands Bill is that 
under it everything can be done which is suggested to be done 
by each of the other bills now before this Committee." 

Mr. Newlands called a conference at his home in 
Washington of seventeen Senators and Eepresentatives 
from the Arid States, without regard to their party affili- 
ations. This conference approved the measure and it 
was introduced in the Senate by Senator Hansbrough, of 
North Dakota, January 30, 1901, and reported favorably 
by the Senate Committee on Public Lands five days later. 
About the same time, it was also approved by the House 
Committee on Irrigation. The measure provoked an 
animated debate in the House of Representatives, but did 
not reach the voting stage, as the short session expired 
by limitation on the fourth of March. 

The results attained in Congress in the brief session 
of three months, were very remarkable. A measure had 
been framed which effectually disposed of the most seri- 
ous objections to a national irrigation policy entertained 
in the East, and this same measure completely overcame 
the rivalries of Western communities, each of which 
sincerely believed it presented the best opportunity for 
the initial national enterprise. The plan won the ap- 
proval of the organized irrigation movement and the ap- 
proval of the country. Victory seemed almost in sight 
when the Fifty-sixth Congress adjourned, at the close of 
William McKinley's first administration. 



280 



CHAPTER III 

IRRIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

Theodore Eoosevelt succeeded to the Presidency on 
September 15th, 1901. He "was the first occupant of the 
White House who had seen enough of the Far West to 
comprehend its unique economic possibilities and to un- 
derstand its claims upon the attention of the Nation. 

The national irrigation movement was born under the 
administration of Benjamin Harrison. The Indiana 
President had, indeed, made an extended tour of the arid 
region during the year that the first Irrigation Congress 
was held at Salt Lake. In the course of his remarkable 
speeches he paid frequent tribute to the hardihood and 
enterprise of the pioneers who turned the streams from 
their channels and so made oases in the desert. But it 
was not given to him to behold the true significance of 
irrigation. And it was with genuine relief that, on his 
return to the humid region, he looked out on green fields 
and remarked to an early morning audience, " It is good 
to be back where God furnishes the rain." 

Ten years elapsed before another President beheld the 
same scenes in his progress to the Pacific. During the 
interval, the cause of reclamation had made a wonderful 
advance in popular estimation, yet William McEanley, 

281 



THE CONQUEST OF AKID AMEEICA 

who was singularly gifted with the power to discern what 
the people were thinking about, did not realize that he 
was in the presence of one of the great issues of the 
imminent future. To an intimate friend he remarked: 
" I can see that sometime there will be a vast problem 
here for the people to solve, but it will come long after 
I have passed from the stage of events." Within six 
months of that time a presidential message gave large 
attention to the subject and urged immediate action — 
but it was written by another hand. And within less 
than one year a national irrigation law had been enacted 
— but William McKinley was in his honored grave. 

When a young man, in somewhat delicate health, Mr. 
Eoosevelt came out from the East to seek the strength of 
the mountains and the benediction of the unclouded sun. 
He made a ranch on the headwaters of the Little Mis- 
souri, herded cattle, mingled with cowboys, hunted the 
big game of the plains. There he learned the marvel of 
the arid soil when joined to the waters of the mountain 
stream. And there he became essentially a Western man 
in spirit and in temperament. It would have been 
strange if, in his long exile in the unpeopled wilderness, 
he had not pondered upon the ultimate future of the 
region. It was thus natural enough that he should take 
kindly to the idea of national irrigation when it had been 
brought prominently to the attention of the country by 
its aggressive champions; and his warm letter of com- 
mendation addressed to the ISTational Irrigation Congress 
at Chicago in 1900, when he was Governor of New York, 
surprised no one who knew his partiality for the West. 
The tragic death of President McKinley brought to power 

282 




From st(.Teoi;rai)h. Copyright, r.«i.'., Iiy Underwooil & I inlirwuml, .Ni'w \ orK. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, THE IRRIGATION PRESIDENT. 



IRRIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

the one American citizen then regarded as a Presidential 
possibility who was thoroughly committed to the national 
irrigation plan. Upon entering the White House, he at 
once declared his intention to press the new policy, and 
proceeded to use all the influence of his great office in 
urging it upon the attention of Congress and the country. 
President Roosevelt's first message, delivered December 
3d, 1901, outlined a much broader basis for national 
irrigation than most of its advocates had considered 
practicable up to that time. It went the full length of 
the Chittenden recommendations and was easily suscep- 
tible of a construction which carried it even farther. To 
illustrate, its opening paragraphs did not deal with the 
question of the public domain, primarily, but with the 
wider and deeper question of laying a foundation for 
the economic life of the West. This, of course, compre- 
hends the whole physical basis of the region, including 
property now in private as well as public ownership. 
The President saw no reason why a scheme of internal 
improvements in the arid region should be discussed in 
its relation to individual and local benefits, as distin- 
guished from the benefits to be conferred upon the Nation 
as a whole, any more than individual and local benefits 
are discussed in relation to improvements in the Missis- 
sippi Valley or on the Atlantic Coast. He put the new 
policy on precisely the same basis as the old. To his 
mind, both represented an exercise of national power for 
the protection and development of national resources. 
And one was as necessary and legitimate as the other. 
Here are the words of his epoch-making recommenda- 
tions : 

283 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

" The forests alone cannot, however, fully regulate and con- 
serve the waters of the arid region. Great storage works are 
necessary to equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood 
waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be 
an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best 
accomplished by the individual States acting alone. Far- 
reaching interstate problems are involved ; and the resources 
of single States would often be inadequate. 

" It is properly a national function, at least in some of its 
features. It is as right for the National Government to make 
the streams and rivers of the arid region useful by engineering 
works for water storage as to make useful the rivers and har- 
bors of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. 
The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headwaters of our 
rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river con- 
trol, under whicli levees are built on the lower reaches of the 
same streams. 

" The Government should construct and maintain these 
reservoirs as it does other public works. Where their purpose 
is to regulate the flow of streams, the water should be turned 
freely into the channels in the dry season to take the same 
course under the same laws as the natural flow." 

It was thus that the President invited the Nation to 
enter upon a new and magnificent enterprise. And it 
was only when he had done so that the friends of the 
policy realized how well they had done their work of popu- 
lar education. The idea of conquering half a continent 
for civilization flattered the national pride and appealed 
irresistibly to the national imagination. Not only was 
this true of the West, where the Presidential message fell 
like the stroke of high noon on the clock of destiny, but 
of the Middle States, the South, and the North Atlantic. 

That portion of the message dealing with the reclama- 
tion of the public domain was only second in importance 

284 



TREIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

to what the President had said of the larger aspects of 
the question. It was as follows: 

" The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents 
a different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the 
flow of streams. Tlie object of the Government is to dispose of 
the land to settlers wlio will build homes upon it. To accom- 
plish this object water must be brouglit within their reach. 

" The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their 
homes along streams from wliich they could themselves divert 
the water to reclaim their lioldings. Such opportunities are 
practically gone. There remain, however, vast areas of public 
land which can be made available for homestead settlement, 
but only by reservoii's and main-line canals impracticable for 
private enterprise. These irrigation works should be built by 
the National Government. The lands reclaimed by them 
should be reserved by the Government for actual settlers, and 
the cost of construction should, so far as possible, be repaid by 
the land reclaimed. The distribution of the water, the division 
of the streams among irrigators, should be left to the settlers 
themselves, in conformity with State laws and without inter- 
ference with those laws or with vested rights." 

The irrigation measure on which the West had prac- 
tically agreed was again introduced on the day the Fifty- 
seventh Congress assembled for its first session, — Dee- 
ember 2, 1901, — by Representative Newlands, and two 
days later by Senator Hansbrough. Then came the 
President's message with its inspiring assurance of un- 
stinted executive support for the movement. The West- 
ern Senators and Representatives were again summoned 
into conference to prepare for the final fight in Congress. 
Attempts were made to alter the character of the measure 
materially, but they were unsuccessful with a single ex- 

285 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

ception. The feature of the " original ISTewlands bill " 
providing for the withdrawal of lands from entry under 
all laws except the homestead, without the benefit of the 
commutation clause, until the works should be finished 
and the water actually ready for delivery, was stricken 
out by the Committee. 

This action was intensely disappointing to the organ- 
ized irrigation movement, who believed it was done solely 
in the interest of land-grabbers who desired to get pos- 
session of the choicest morsels of the pul)lic domain in 
advance of homeseekers. George H. Maxwell declared 
that it amounted to a betrayal of the most sacred objects 
of the movement and said it was infinitely preferable that 
the entire measure should be lost at that time rather than 
that a condition should be created under which it would 
be not only possible, but probable, that the lands would 
be stolen before the genuine homemaker could get an 
opportunity to file upon them. His aggressive stand 
aroused a storm of opposition to the amendment. It re- 
sulted in an animated conference at the White House, at 
which the President announced that he would not sign 
the bill in that shape. The original provision was then 
restored so that it was made impossible for any one to 
obtain title to public lands irrigated by the Government, 
without five years' residence and actual cultivation. 

The Newlands' bill, which had previously passed the 
Senate, went through the House on June 13, 1903, by a 
vote of 146 to 55. It was signed by the President on 
June 17, the 137th anniversary of the battle of Bunker 
Hill. 

The National Irrigation Law had a singular experi- 

286 



IREIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

ence in the presidential campaign of 1904. It is perhaps 
the only measure in the history of American legislation 
enjoying a popularity so absolute and unquestionable that 
the only possible controversy between the two parties 
was as to which was entitled to the greater credit for 
bringing it to pass. The controversy on this point raged 
fiercely throughout the arid region and was sharply 
accentuated by the Democratic demand for a policy of 
domestic development as opposed to foreign expansion. 

The Republicans asserted that the President was 
chiefly entitled to the credit for the passage of the law, 
and claimed that the seventeen Senators and Representa- 
tives from the Arid States who united in recommending 
the measure were the real authors of the bill. The Dem- 
ocrats replied that the measure was framed and intro- 
duced by a statesman of their own faith, that it was 
passed in the Senate by a non-partisan vote, and passed in 
the House (where the real battle was fought) by a vote 
the majority of which was Democratic, over the opposi- 
tion of the strongest Republican leaders in that body. 

The controversy was one of more than passing interest 
because it involved the attitude of individuals and of 
parties in connection with principles which are certain 
to be much debated in the future and to exert a far- 
reaching influence on the course of events. It was hope- 
less to expect a judicial consideration of the matter in 
the height of a presidential campaign. Since then, how- 
ever, it has been discussed in a spirit which seems entirely 
worthy of permanent record. At Sheridan, Wyoming, 
in July, 1905, in the presence of several of his colleagues 
on the Committee of Seventeen who urged the measure 

287 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

upon Congress, Senator Newlands reviewed the contro- 
versy with the utmost frankness. His presentation was 
received with a degree of enthusiasm and apparent una- 
nimity which warrants the hope that the contention is 
now ended. The occasion was furnished by a banquet 
tendered to the members of the Congressional Committees 
on Irrigation, near the end of their long tour of the arid 
region. Senator Newlands said: 

*' I have listened through our journey to the praise bestowed 
upon President Roosevelt in connection with the irrigation 
movement, and I would not detract at all from the deserved 
reputation which he enjoys by his prominence in it. But I 
wish to call your attention to the fact that it was a union of 
Democrats with Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Mondell and Mr. Jones 
of Washington and Mr. Reeder of Kansas and other Republi- 
cans like them, that accomplished this act of legislation." 

Mr. Mondell : " You are right." 

Mr. Newlands : " Tlie fact is that we Democrats have adopted 
Mr. Roosevelt. And there are now two wings to the Democra- 
tic party, the Republican wing and the old Democratic wing. 
"We are for Mr. Roosevelt's Democratic policy of reform, and 
we are going to see that that policy is enacted into law within 
the next three years, for Providence has assigned to him the 
opportunity of achievement." 

Mr. ISTewlands then referred to the fact that through- 
out their pilgrimage in the Southwest and West, Mr. 
Mondell had referred to the famous Committee of 
Seventeen — a voluntary committee, selected, after Mr. 
Roosevelt became President, by the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives from the Western States, to adjust the differ- 
ences of the West regarding irrigation, as the source and 
origin of the Reclamation Act. 

288 



•.,^-\-V 






lERIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

" This," he said, " was a mistake. The Reclamation Act, in 
all its essential features, had been framed and presented by a 
Democrat at the preceding session of Congress, immediately 
following the election of 1900 and whilst Mr. McKinley was 
living." 

Referring to its history, Mr. Newlands stated that in 
1900, after many years of agitation, the Western men 
had secured from both the Democratic and Republican 
parties a declaration in their platform favoring national 
irrigation, and at the session of Congress next ensuing 
(the session constituting the last of McKinley's first 
term), it was determined to press the matter. At that 
time, said IMr. Newlands, there were but three bills 
pending in Congress providing for immediate construc- 
tion, which had been presented by Shafroth, Bell, and 
himself. 



" As the Committee hearing progressed," said Mr. Newlands, 
"it soon developed that members differed greatly, and I came 
to the conclusion that we could not hope to persuade the East 
until the men of the West were united. And so, with a view 
to shaping a broad and comprehensive national measure that 
would receive the support of and include tlie entire arid region, 
I made a careful study of all previous bills, including those of 
Mr. Shafroth and l\Ir. Bell, from whicli most valuable sugges- 
tions were received. I also consulted Mr. Newell of the Rec- 
lamation Service, Mr. Maxwell of the Irrigation Association, 
Mr. Ehvood Mead, and other irrigation experts, who differed 
widely as to the form of legislation ; and finally, on the 26th 
day of January, 1901, I introduced in the House a bill which 
contained every essential feature of the Reclamation Act that 
is now upon the statute book. 

*' This bill provided for a revolving reclamation fund derived 
from the sales of public lands ; it authorized the withdrawal 
U 289 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

from entry of lands necessary for irrigation projects, and pro- 
vided for the immediate construction of irrigation works wher- 
ever deemed feasible by the Secretary of the Interior, upon 
whom the only restraint imposed was that no contract should 
be let unless the money for its payment was in the fund. It dis- 
couraged land monopoly by dividing the lands to be irrigated into 
small holdings for actual settlers, and sought to destroy exist- 
ing land monopoly by providing that no private owner of land 
could secure a water right for more than eighty acres, thus 
compelling the division of large holdings into small farms. It 
provided for the payment of the cost of each project by the 
settlers, without interest, in ten annual instalments, the fund 
being thus retained as a revolving fund for future opera- 
tions. 

"This bill was considered at a meeting of Western Senators 
and Representatives at my house, and, upon motion of Senator 
Pettigrew, the bill was approved and Senator Hansbrough, a 
most strenuous advocate of national irrigation, was requested 
to introduce it in the Senate, which was done the next day. 
This bill was immediately accepted by the Western news- 
papers and Western sentiment as a satisfactory solution of the 
question, and within six weeks and before the close of the ses- 
sion and of McKinley's first adminstration, the movement for 
its passage had made such headway that it received the sanc- 
tion of the Senate Committee on Public Lands of the Senate, 
and its leading provisions had received the approval of the 
House Committee on Irrigation. 

" All this was accomplished before Mr. Roosevelt became 
President. The Western press announced that the bill would 
be pressed by the West at the following session. Meanwhile, 
however, a movement was organized in Wyoming to defeat this 
bill and to substitute for it a measure more in harmony with 
the Wyoming view, which sought to retain State control over 
the construction and administration of irrigation projects. 
And so a convention was called at Cheyenne of Representatives 
from North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, 
Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, most of wliich States had 
irrigation departments organized under State Engineers in 

290 



IRRIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

sympathy with the views of "Wyoming. At this convention, of 
which Mr. Mondell, Senator Warren, and others were con- 
spicuous members, the so-called ' State Engineers' Bill ' was 
approved, a bill which accepted the provision of the general 
bill introduced at the preceding session of Congress by myself 
as to the creation of a reclamation fund, but provided for the 
construction and control of ii'rigation projects by the State 
Engineers of the respective States. 

" Later on, when we met at Washington for the first session 
under Roosevelt's administration, a call was issued to the 
Senators and Representatives to meet at Senator Warren's com- 
mittee room, and there Senator Wan-en presented the State 
Engineers' bill for our consideration. We who believed in 
thoroughly nationalizing irrigation, who believed that every 
river and its tributaries, regardless of State lines, should be 
made the subject of comprehensive study by the National 
Government with a vievs^ to the construction of works that 
would secure the largest development of the entire drainage 
area, vigorously fought this bill, and it was rejected. 

*' Then it was that the Committee of Seventeen, composed of 
one Senator or Representative from each State or Territory af- 
fected, was selected to harmonize the differences of the West. 
For thirty days this committee sat in session, their contention 
being mainly between those of us who wished thoroughly 
nationalized irrigation and those who wished to retain some 
form of State control ; and at the end of that period of conten- 
tion the Reclamation Act was reported containing every 
essential provision of the bill to which I have referred, which 
was introduced by me in the pi-eceding Congress, and Mr. 
Hansbrough was instructed to offer this bill in the Senate and 
I was instructed to offer it in the House. 

"The passage of this bill in the Senate was assured because 
of the large representation of the West in that body. The dif- 
ficulty was in the House, where the Western delegation was 
proportionately small and in which the Republican leaders had 
arrayed themselves in opposition to the bill. The bill had to go 
before the regular committees for consideration. It was re- 
ported to the House by Mr. Mondell, who had accepted the 

291 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEKICA 

judgment of the West as to the complete nationalization of ir- 
rigation, in a very comprehensive report. It was at this time 
that President Roosevelt, whose message had drawn the atten- 
tion of the entire country to the importance of irrigation, in- 
tervened as the friend of the West and gave his jiowerful 
influence to breaking down tJie opposition of Republican 
leaders. It was lai-gely due to him that consideration of tlie 
bill was conceded by the House leaders who, although they 
voted against the bill, relaxed their opposition to its considera- 
tion." 

Supplementing an account given by Mr. Mondell of 
an interview with Mr. Roosevelt, in which Mr. Eoosevelt 
gave him a letter addressed to Mr. Cannon urging the 
immediate consideration and passage of the bill, Mr. 
Newlands referred to an interview of his own with the 
President in which the latter expressed the greatest 
interest in the subject, but suggested that it might be 
better to substitute for the pending comprehensive bill 
a bill for a small project involving the expenditure of 
$250,000 or $500,000, as an entering wedge for future 
legislation, Mr. Newlands continued : 

" My reply was : ' Mr. President, we can pass a big bill as 
easily as we can pass a little bill. If we pass a little bill for 
one project, it will take five years for its completion, and Con- 
gress will then take five years longer in determining whether it 
is a success or not ; besides, we cannot stake the cause of na- 
tional irrigation on the success of one project, which might be 
a failure. We can pass this general bill if you can moderate 
the opposition of the leading members of your own party, for 
the Democratic party stands ready to support this bill.' It was 
not necessary to urge this upon President Roosevelt, who was 
heart and soul in the movement, and who threw himself into 
the advocacy of the movement with a zeal all his own. The 
result was that while the leaders to whom I have referred voted 
against the bill, they graciouslj' allowed it to be considered in 

292 



IRRIGATION IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

the House, and after a spirited debate, in which Mr. Shafroth 
took so conspicuous a part, the bill was passed. 

" Let me say that though the House was Republican, the 
majority of the votes which passed the bill was Democratic ; 
and of the votes against the bill, three-fourths were Republican 
and one-fourth Democratic. And so I say that whilst we rec- 
ognize the splendid advocacy of Roosevelt and the energetic ef- 
forts of other Republicans like him, I insist upon it that history 
records that the bill in all its essential features was framed by 
a Democrat and passed in the House of Representatives by a 
vote the majority of which was Democratic ; and that the bill 
stands upon the statute book to-day as the result of a union of 
Democracy with President Roosevelt and his Republican 
friends of like faith." 

Mr. Newlands then went on to declare that the Demo- 
crats would stand with the President in the reform of the 
land laws and other measures. He commented at length 
upon the necessity of reforming the land laws, insist- 
ing that through their operation the natural wealth of 
the country, the wealth of timber, of coal, of iron, and 
of oil in the public domain belonging to the entire 
people, was drifting into the hands of syndicates and 
monopolies, to be used for their oppression. 

"I insist," said Mr. Newlands, " that these questions are too 
serious for mere partisan consideration. The democracy of 
both parties should be aroused to the necessity of upholding 
President Roosevelt in his domestic policies. No desire to em- 
broil the President with his own party should control the senti- 
ment of Democrats, but rather the patriotic motive of aiding 
him to place upon the statute books tlie policies of which lie is 
to-day the leading exponent. A greater democracy should be 
appealed to — not the mere democracy of a party, but that larger 
democracy which enrolls as its distinguished leaders Jefferson 
and Jackson, Lincoln and Roosevelt." 



293 



CHAPTER IV 

UNCLE SAM's young MEN AT WORK 

The main provisions of the national irrigation law 
are as follows: 

Beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, 
the entire receipts from the sale of public lands in 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, 
Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Okla- 
homa, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and 
Wyoming, are set aside and appropriated as a special 
fund in the Treasury, to be known as the Reclamation 
Fund, for the examination and survey, and for the con- 
struction and maintenance, of irrigation works for the 
storage, diversion, and development of waters for the 
reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in those States 
and Territories. 

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and di- 
rected to make examinations and surveys for, and to 
locate and construct, irrigation works for the storage, 
diversion, and development of waters, including artesian 
wells, and to report to Congress all the details of the work 
accomplished. 

The Secretary is required, before giving the public 
notice of his plans, to withdraw from public entry both 
the lands which may be needed for irrigation works 
and the lands which are likely to be reclaimed by such 

294 



UNCLE SAM'S YOUNG MEN AT WORK 

works, except that agricultural lands shall be open to 
entry under the homestead law, but without the privi- 
lege of the commutation clause of that law. 

The Secretary has full authority to let contracts for 
the construction of such irrigation works as he considers 
feasible, providing the necessary funds are available. 
He is not required to wait for any special authorization 
by Congress. 

The working day for men employed in construction 
is fixed at eight hours and the employment of Mongolian 
labor is prohibited. 

The Secretary determines the amount of land which 
each settler may file upon, but the law fixes the minimum 
entry at 40 acres and the maximum at 160 acres. Within 
these limitations, discretion is left to the Secretary and 
he is expected to determine the area " reasonably re- 
quired for the support of a family upon the lands in 
question." 

The law distinctly contemplates the reclamation of 
lands in private ownership and makes it the duty of the 
Secretary to determine the terras upon which water shall 
be supplied to such lands, provided " no right to the use 
of water for land in private ownership shall be sold for a 
tract exceeding 160 acres to any one landowner, and no 
such sale shall be made to any landowner unless he be an 
actual bona fide resident on such land, or occupant there- 
of, residing in the neighborhood." (The last clause was 
added for the accommodation of settlers who, like the 
Mormons, prefer to have their homes in village centres). 

Settlers are required to pay the usual Government 
price of $1.25 per acre for land, and, in addition, the price 

295 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

fixed by the Secretary for water. The latter is sufficient 
to reimburse the Government for the cost of the works 
and to be paid in ten annual instalments, without inter- 
est. This applies alike to private landowners and to 
entrymen on public land. 

When payment has been made for the major portion 
of the lands irrigated by a given system, the management 
and operation of the irrigation works passes to the land- 
owners under such form of organization and such rules 
and regulations as the Secretary may approve. 

But the title to reservoirs and to the works necessary 
for their protection and operation, together with the 
management of same, rests with the Government until 
otherwise provided by Congress. 

The Secretary is given authority to acquire by purchase 
of condemnation any rights or property which he finds 
necessary in the application of the law. 

The Secretary is required to expend the major portion 
of the funds arising from the sale of public lands within 
the State or Territory whence the money is derived, but 
may temporarily use the fund wherever he may deem 
advisable. At least once in ten years, the expenditures 
for the benefit of the various States and Territories must 
be equalized, as far as this may be feasible. 

Nothing in the law is intended to affect or interfere 
with local statutes relating to the control, appropriation, 
or distribution of water, or with vested rights. It is 
provided, however, that the right to the use of water 
from the national system shall always be appurtenant 
to the land, and that beneficial use shall be recognized 
as the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right. 

296 




ETHAX Al.LKN HITCHCOCK, SKCKETAKY OK THK INTKKIOK.— Whose 

name will live in Hislorv as the First Administrator of National 
Irrigation and Fearless Prosecutor of Land Frauds. 



UNCLE SAM'S YOUNG MEN AT WORK 

Within twenty-four hours after the signing of the 
measure by the President, Secretary Hitchcock had set 
the machinery of the Department of the Interior in 
motion to carry it into effect. He assigned the details 
of administration to the Geological Survey. Director 
Charles D. Walcott iinmediately organized the United 
States Eeclamation Service, putting at the head of it a 
trained man of great competence, Frederick Haynes 
Newell. 

Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, Chief Engineer Newell had already spent a dozen 
busy years in studying the hydraulic problems of the arid 
region. He was one of the young men who had grown 
up in the inspiring presence of John Wesley Powell, 
founder of the Geological Survey, and first scientific 
explorer of the Far West. Major Powell had predicted 
for him a great career and had done much to fit him for 
the work upon which he now entered. He came to his 
new task a patient, thorough, scientific servant of the 
Republic, with no dangerous enthusiasms, but with 
deeply-founded faith in the value of the great enterprise 
committed to his hands. 

The work of the Reclamation Service is planned by a 
Board of Consulting Engineers, composed of men who 
represent the finest talent and most valuable experience 
for this particular service in the United States. These 
men are Arthur P. Davis, Joseph Barlow Lippincott, 
G. Y. Wisner, H. N. Savage, J. H. Quinton, W. H. 
Sanders, and Benjamin M. Hall. They were all care- 
fully trained for their profession, and they have all been 
associated with the work of designing and constructing 

397 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEKICA 

important public and private hydraulic systems in many 
different parts of the country. In April, 1905, the 
President appointed C. E. Grunsky, of California, late 
a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, Consult- 
ing Engineer to the Director of the Geological Survey, 
which further strengthened the Reclamation Service, as 
the Director stands between Chief Engineer Newell and 
the Secretary of the Interior in the administration of the 
great enterprise. 

The first work of the Eeclamation Service was to 
organize a corps of young men to make the necessary 
surveys and examinations over a vast territory. The 
nucleus of the service consists of men who have been 
engaged in measuring streams and studying the economic 
possibilities of the West under the Geological Survey. 
Additional men are obtained through competitive ex- 
amination. These are of two classes. The first consists 
of experienced men chosen through examinations based 
on practical questions where the rating depends largely 
on the applicant's record in the construction of irrigation 
works. The second is made up of well-educated young 
men of good character who enter the lower ranks with the 
expectation of being advanced as opportunity offers. The 
young fellows fresh from college receive while on pro- 
bation about $60 per month; as they show their worth, 
they are advanced to $75 per month, then to $1000 a 
year. Up to this stage they are known as engineering 
aids. Later, they become assistant engineers, receiving 
$1,200, $1,400, or $1,600 a year, until the time when 
they have demonstrated their ability to conduct inde- 
pendent work and to initiate plans. Then they become 

298 







I. CHAULKS I) WAI.COTT.— Director 2. KRKDKKICK H. NEWELL.— Chief 

of the I'liited States Geoloijical Kiij^iiieer of the United States 

Survey. Keclaination Service. 

3. GIFEORD riNCHcjT. — Forcstcr. 4. c. E. (iKiNsKY. — Consulting En- 

jiineer to Director of the Geolo- 
gical Survey. 



UNCLE SAM'S YOUNG MEN AT WORK 

full engineers, receiving from $1,800 to $3,000, according 
to age and experience. Appointments and promotions 
are made in accordance with the best ideal of civil service 
and political influence is wholly ignored. 

There are thirteen States and three Territories which 
constitute the field of operations for the Reclamation 
Service. In all of these, engineering parties were 
promptly put at work. Some of the parties were quite 
large. For instance, over one hundred men were engaged 
for several months on the lower reaches of the Colorado 
River in Arizona and California. Camps are frequently 
located in the wildest spots still remaining in the United 
States. 

The first step everywhere is to measure streams and 
learn the quantity of water available for the reclamation 
of new areas. The next step, roughly to survey the lands 
susceptible of irrigation from the source of supply. When 
a project looks promising, the engineers proceed to ob- 
tain exact information concerning the cost and efficiency 
of necessary works, then to study all the factors entering 
into the economic questions presented. The field work 
completed, full reports concerning the project, together 
with maps and photographs, are forwarded to the Chief 
Engineer at Washington. This official gives the matter 
careful consideration and, if the facts are apparently 
complete, submits them to a consulting board of three 
or more engineers whose professional standing is such as 
to give confidence in their opinions. If the matter still 
looks promising, the board visits the locality, goes over 
the items, verifies the conclusions, and transmits its 
findings to the Chief Engineer. If additional surveys 

299 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

are needed, they are made; otherwise, the conclusions 
are sent forward with recommendations, through the Di- 
rector of the Geological Surve}^, to the Secretary of the 
Interior. 

The plans are not yet public property, and may never 
become such. All that has been done up to this point 
is for the information of the Administration, which must 
now exercise its own judgment as to how, when, and 
where the reclamation fund shall be expended. It is 
only when final action has been determined upon that 
the public may know what the Government will do. 

Before the National Irrigation Law had been on the 
statute books a year, examinations had been pushed into 
nearly all States and Territories mentioned in the Act, 
and five projects had been officially approved. These 
were located, repectively, on the Milk River in Montana, 
the Sweetwater in Wyoming, the Truckee in Nevada, the 
Gunnison in Colorado, and the Salt River in Arizona. 
In another six months construction had actually begun 
in Nevada and Arizona. The amount in the Reclama- 
tion Fund on June 30th, 1903, the end of the second 
fiscal year, was about $16,000,000, At the end of the 
third year it was $23,000,000 and on June 30th, 1905, 
about $30,000,000. 

There is no other instance in American history where 
the inauguration of a new policy of internal development 
was so promptly accomplished. Not an hour was wasted 
in useless talk, in Congress or out of it. In the fulness 
of time. Uncle Sam had laid his hand on the door of 
Arid America, and the whole Nation looked on with 
enthusiastic approval. 

300 



UNCLE SAM'S YOUNG MEN AT WORK 

The Agricultural Department co-operates with the Re- 
clamation Service in preparing the way for the settler. 
There is much to be done besides bringing water to the 
desert. The soil must be analyzed and its capacity for 
the production of various crops determined in advance, as 
far as possible. Various social and economic problems 
closely related to irrigation must be subjected to careful 
study. The duty of water — that is to say, the amount 
required to obtain the best results with certain crops 
and soils — is a matter of vital importance to the settler 
and only to be ascertained by scientific investigation. 

The division of Irrigation Investigations and Drainage 
in the Bureau of Exjaeriment Stations is one of the most 
important agencies now engaged in working out the 
problem of colonization. Elwood Mead, who had done 
one lifetime's work in framing and administering the 
water laws of Wyoming, is now engaged in the perform- 
ance of another as Chief of this Division. He approached 
these problems with a grasp and a trained intelligence 
which no other man could have given them and, with the 
aid of his numerous staff of skilled and earnest assistants, 
he is guiding the work of the pioneer settlers in a way 
which will enable them to build on scientific foundations. 
While this work is less dramatic than the construction of 
reservoirs and canals, and far less monumental in its 
physical results, it is none the less important to the 
people of the country. It is, in fact, the work which 
will enable the future millions to utilize the opportunities 
opened by the Reclamation Service and to preserve these 
advantages to the latest generation. 



301 



CHAPTER V 

PREPARING HOMES FOR THE PEOPLE 

On July 1st, 1905, the reclamation fund for home- 
making in Arid America amounted to about $30,000,000. 
Plans had been made for the expenditure of this amount 
in thirteen States and three Territories. . On the 17th 
of June, the third anniversary of the Reclamation Act, 
the formal opening of the first government project oc- 
curred in Nevada in the presence of a large and distin- 
guished company. Work is being vigorously prosecuted 
on many other projects, and it is expected that on each 
succeeding anniversary of the Act at least one system 
will be completed and a large area of lands dedicated to 
settlement. 

In preceding chapters, the resources of various States 
and Territories have been discussed and the story of their 
development brought down to date. There the reader 
will find general descriptions of climate, soil, geography, 
markets, and other considerations of vital interest to the 
intending settler in all localities where works of irriga- 
tion are building or to be built. The object of this 
chapter is to supply concise and reliable information 
concerning projects actually under way and certain to be 
opened to homeseekers in the early future. 

Any unmarried person over twenty-one jenrs of age, 
or head of a family, who is, or has declared intention to 

303 



PREPARINGHOMESFORTHEPEOPLE 

become, a citizen of the United States, who has not used 
his or her homestead right, or who is not then owner 
of more than 160 acres of land in any one State, can i&le 
on any one of the tracts surveyed by the Government. 
Title to lands cannot be acquired until all payments for 
water have been made, ten years hence. The law re- 
quires a homesteader to see and select his land personally. 

There is one warning which should be sounded for the 
benefit of a certain class of settlers. The man who at- 
tempts to make a home on the primeval desert, even with 
free land and the best irrigation and drainage facilities, 
requires money to make a successful start. There will 
doubtless be exceptions to the rule — men who will get 
work in the locality from the Government or private 
parties and be able to hold on until their land yields 
returns, when, by dint of hard work and economical 
living, they can build their homes, improve their lands, 
and make their annual payments for water rights. But 
the average man will need capital in order to bring his 
farm to a paying stage. This capital he cannot borrow 
until he gets title to his land, and he cannot get title 
until he completes payment for his water rights, ten years 
hence. There is no way in which these payments can be 
commuted. 

It is important that the reader should understand at 
the outset that a large part of the land to be reclaimed 
by the national irrigation system is not public domain, 
open to entry under the land laws, but land in private 
ownership which the settler may only obtain by purchase 
from its present proprietors. The proportion of private 
land varies widely with different projects. There is no 

303 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEKICA 

locality which is wholly free from it, and there are some 
localities where nearly all the land is privately owned. 
The law not only favors, but compels, the subdivision of 
these private estates into farms of one hundred and 
sixty acres each. Water rights from government canals 
cannot be obtained by any one purchaser for a larger 
area than this. As a matter of fact, the popular farm 
unit will be much less and there is, of course, no mini- 
mum fixed by the law. The irrigated farm may be 
as small as seller and buyer agree upon. 

Eastern readers will, perhaps, desire to be told how it 
happens that a policy avowedly undertaken with the 
object of making homes on the public domain should 
provide for the reclamation of lands in private owner- 
ship, and why the first projects undertaken by the Gov- 
ernment deal with localities in which the major portion 
of the land is privately owned. 

With few exceptions, the streams on which it is pro- 
posed to store water and develop power have long been 
used for irrigation. Their entire flow at low-water stage 
is diverted each year into canals already in operation, 
while an amount of water much in excess of their low- 
water flow has been claimed and appropriated in accord- 
ance with local laws and customs. As a practical ques- 
tion, it is found utterly impossible to store the flood 
waters of such streams without interfering with vested 
rights, unless it be frankly conceded at the outset that 
private lands dependent on this source of supply shall 
satisfy their reasonable needs from the new works, paying 
the Government therefor in just the same manner that 
the settlers on public lands are required to do. 

804 



PREPAKINGHOMESFOETIIEPEOPLE 

As a rule, there are three classes of lands within reach 
of every stream in the arid region, viz. : first, those owned 
by earliest appropriators, which have an abundance of 
water; second, those owned by later appropriators, which 
have sufficient water for a short time each season and a 
claim for more water when it happens to be in the 
stream ; third, those who have no water at all, and cannot 
have until the full storage and pumping possibilities of 
the stream and locality shall be realized by means of 
national irrigation. Taking the arid region as a whole, 
the third class of land is much the largest, and it was for 
the benefit of this class that the movement was under- 
taken primarily. But if the Government should shut 
its eyes to the claims of the second class it would do a 
grave injustice and have endless litigation on its hands. 
This would inevitably follow, since the water which the 
Government proposes to store or to pump is absolutely 
the only water which can ever be made available for the 
use of these lands now in private ownership, but re- 
ceiving only partial and very unsatisfactory irrigation. 
That is one aspect of the case, and the commonest aspect. 
But take another where the issue is more sharply defined. 

There are streams where every drop of water which can 
possibly be stored will be required to irrigate lands now 
in private ownership. These lands were mostly taken 
up by those who sought to make homes in good faith 
on the public domain. They settled under laws deliber- 
ately enacted by Congress. If those laws proved to be an 
invitation to disaster, it is certainly not the fault of the 
homeseekers. They depended for water upon speculative 
corporations chartered under the law and vested with 
X 305 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

sweeping franchises and rights in the most precious ele- 
ment of natural wealth. These speculative corporations 
frequently oversold their supply and more frequently 
went bankrupt before they had finished their works. 
Again, the homeseekers were not responsible for the situ- 
ation in which they found themselves. Indeed, it very 
often happened that they had paid for their water rights 
in advance, thus furnishing the speculators with the 
capital on which to speculate and exploit the unfortunate 
settlers. 

Now, then, to insist that the Government shall appro- 
priate the only water that can ever be brought to these 
private lands, and take that water away to public lands 
where nobody lives, would be so palpably unjust that the 
proposition could not possibly find an advocate or de- 
fender among those who know the facts. It therefore 
becomes necessary not only to irrigate lands of which a 
part are in private ownership, but it will sometimes be 
necessary to irrigate lands of which all are in private 
ownership. Not to do so would be an act of injustice, 
of inhumanity. It would put the Government in the un- 
tenable position of punishing one class of its citizens in 
order that another class may be benefited. With one 
hand it would hold out the hope of independence to pros- 
pective settlers who have not yet left their eastern or 
foreign homes, while with the other hand it would de- 
prive some of our best and bravest pioneers of their only 
chance to win the independence they have fought for. 
This would, of course, be unthinkable. 



306 



PEE PARINGHOMESFORTIIE PEOPLE 

Salt River Project, Arizona. 

The lands to be watered by the great system in this 
valley, of which the Eoosevelt dam in Tonto Basin will 
be the foundation, are largely in private ownership, but 
when the present plans of storage and diversion shall be 
supplemented by the powerful pumping plant which the 
Government has in contemplation, the total area re- 
claimed will be almost equally divided between private 
lands and those now belonging to the public domain. 

The Roosevelt dam closes a narrow canyon, which will 
be flooded to the extent of 14,000 acres. This will create 
the largest artificial reservoir in the United States. Its 
capacity will be 400,000,000,000 gallons, or 1,300,000 
acre feet, — three times as great as the capacity of the 
Wachusett reservoir which supplies the city of Boston, 
and twice as great as the famous Croton dam which sup- 
plies the city of New York. Owing to the extreme dry- 
ness of the climate, the nature of the soil, and the high 
degree of evaporative losses, six or seven acre feet per 
annum are required for irrigation, so that the amount of 
water stored will increase the usefulness of the Salt 
Eiver for irrigation to the extent of about 200,000 acres. 

The dam is of solid masonry, both foundation and 
superstructure being built of sandstone. All materials 
are found on the site, even the cement being manufac- 
tured by a special plant located on the ground. The 
situation, in a deep canyon with lofty, precipitous sides, 
and with a wide valley above, gives an enormous storage 
capacity in proportion to the dimensions of the dam. 
Tlie impounding structure is built in a circular curve, 

307 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

convex up stream, with a total height of 270 feet, a length 
at the base of only 200, and at the top of 653 feet, with 
a thickness of 165 feet at the base and 16 feet at the 
top. Spillways are excavated in solid rock on both 
sides; these will be bridged, and a road will traverse the 
bridges and the crest of the dam. 

An allotment of $3,600,000 was made for this work 
from the reclamation fund. The settler must pay about 
$20 per acre for a water right which represents his 
share in the ownership of the completed system. This 
price he is to pay in ten annual instalments without 
interest. In addition to this, the settler purchasing pri- 
vate lands must pay a price which varies with locality 
and quality of the soil, ranging from $25 to $100 per 



acre.* 



Colorado River Project. 

The Colorado River is nature's great gift to the South- 
west and, by the way, it is not in the State of Colorado, 
but in Arizona, California, and Mexico. For ages it 
has flowed through the most desolate wastes in North 
America, a region which has been popularly regarded as 
worthless and hopeless. During the past thirty years 
private enterprise has tried to make some use of its tur- 
bid flood. Only in the wonderful Imperial Valley of 
California, and in limited areas below Yuma in Arizona, 
has there been any result approaching success, and the 

* Consult alphabetical index for full description of Salt River 
Valley and other localities where government reclamation 
works are building. 

308 




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PREPAKINGHOMESFOHTHEPEOPLE 

chief value of these experiments has been to demonstrate 
how little can be done by individual effort and how much 
could be accomplished if the resources of the Nation were 
brought to bear upon the problem. The lesson has been 
learned ; the jSTation has put its hand to the task. 

A great weir, or diverting dam, built after the manner 
of those which have done good service on the Nile, is now 
in course of construction in the main channel of the 
stream, twenty-two miles above Yuma. It will occupy 
a wide but rocky gorge with solid natural abutments. 
The height of this weir, which bears the official name of 
" the Laguna," is but ten feet above low water. Two 
canals Avill be taken out at this point, one supplying 
irrigation to the Arizona side of the river, the other to 
the California side. The weir will create a settling basin 
above, in which the heavy silt of the river will be depos- 
ited during the greater portion of the year, to be flushed 
out and sent down to the Gulf at the time of the annual 
flood. Extensive levees will be built on both banks to 
project irrigated lands from inundation, and comprehen- 
sive drainage systems will be provided wherever necessary 
as a means of supplementing natural drainage. Ulti- 
mately, the floods will be largely stored upon the higher 
sources of the stream. When the entire water supply is 
utilized in the most scientific and economical way, nearly 
two million acres will be irrigated by this great river 
system, as follows: Above the Grand Canyon (in Wyom- 
ing, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) 470,- 
000 acres; below the Grand Canyon (in Arizona and 
California) 811,000 acres; in the Republic of Mexico, 
688,000 acres. As navigation must be made subordinate 

309 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

to the higher interests of irrigation, a new treaty will be 
required with Mexico. 

The project, as now planned, will cost about $3,000,- 
000, but the greater Colorado system which will develop 
in course of time, and which will comprehend the whole 
stream from its mountain sources in the north to its out- 
let in the Gulf, will require an expenditure of, approxi- 
mately, $20,000,000. Even then it will return its cost 
several times over every year in dollars and cents, to 
say nothing of its contribution to civilization in a higher 
way. 

The cost of water rights in the district to be irrigated 
first will be $35 an acre, which includes the settler's 
share in the expense of drainage and flood protection. 
It is likely that the cost will lessen as the project is en- 
larged to cover greater areas. Much of the choicest land 
has already passed into private ownership, but a con- 
siderable area still remains open to entry under the land 
laws. The larger portion of the land ultimately to be 
reclaimed belongs to the public domain. Unimproved 
land in private ownership will cost the settler from $50 
to $100 an acre, in addition to the water right, and is 
richly worth it. It is susceptible of the most intense 
cultivation and certain to be closely settled in small 
farms. 

Klamath Project, Oregon and California. 

Lying on both sides of the boundary between Cali- 
fornia and Oregon, the work to be done on " the Klamath 
project " will be of immense benefit to both those States. 

310 





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PREPAEING HOMES FOR THE PEOPLE 

This region lies at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 
feet, and is therefore suited only to hardy crops. The 
arable land is contained in a chain of valleys lying be- 
tween rocky mountains, all more or less covered with 
noble pine and hemlock forests. It is a land of snow, 
and of clear, cold, rushing rivers. The soil consists 
of decomposed lava and volcanic ash, carried by the 
streams into the valleys. 

The plans involve the construction of two great dams 
for the creation of reservoirs ; the partial drainage of two 
interstate lakes and the uncovering of the arable marsh 
lands on their margins; and the use of the abundant 
water power to pump water from one of the lakes into a 
near-by valley. 

The full development of the work will result in the 
reclamation of about 300,000 acres of land, at a cost of 
about $17 an acre. A large proportion of these are 
public lands. The plans for the project have been ap- 
proved and funds set aside for the work, which will 
soon be commenced. 

The Uncompahgre Project, Colorado. 

In the picturesque and prosperous region on the west- 
ern slope of the Rocky Mountains, the Government is 
engaged in completing one of its most notable enterprises, 
officially known as "the Uncompahgre project." Water 
is taken from the Gunnison River, conducted through the 
hitherto impassable mountains by means of a tunnel, and 
then turned into the channel of the Uncompahgre River, 
to be diverted into canals and spread over the valleys 

311 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

in Montrose and Delta counties. It is an example of 
bold engineering amply justified by the value of the 
region to be reclaimed, for there is no fairer spot in Arid 
America. 

The larger portion of the land is in private ownership 
and commands high prices, owing to the extraordinary 
returns which are realized in the fruit industry. The 
project will cost about $2,500,000 and water is expected 
to be available in 1908. The cost of water rights will 
be about $25 an acre. 

MinidoTca and Boise-Payette Projects, Idalio. 

Idaho offers ideal conditions for national irrigation 
enterprise, for it is wonderfully favored in its water 
supply, as well as in its great valleys of fertile soil. Its 
comparatively sparse population is another favoring cir- 
cumstance, since there is the greater opportunity to show 
large and striking results for the new policy. 

The Minidoka project contemplates the reclamation of 
about 150,000 acres of public land l3'ing on both sides 
of the Snake River in southern Idaho. Tliis land is near 
the Oregon Short Line Railroad, in an altitude of about 
4200 feet above sea level. A dam is in course of con- 
struction across Snake River which will raise the water 
sufficiently to irrigate the lower valleys. The large water 
power will be utilized to operate a pumping plant and 
thus reclaim the higher levels. It is expected that the 
system will be at the service of settlers in the spring of 
1906 and that the cost of water rights will be about $26 
an acre. 

313 






GOVERNMENT PROJECT IN OREGON.— I. Adams Canal. 2. Tulc Lake. 



PEEPAKING HOMES FOE THE PEOPLE 

Two townsites have been reserved along the proposed 
extension of the Oregon Short Line and within the tract 
to be irrigated. Entries are limited to forty acres within 
a mile and a half of these townsites, and to eighty acres 
on all other parts of the tract, 

A project of even greater importance is that which is 
known as the " Boise-Payette," which will irrigate a 
vast area in the most populous part of the State, near 
the cities of Boise, Nampa, and Caldwell. The Boise 
and the Payette are already extensively used for irriga- 
tion, but it is proposed to regulate their flow by storage 
works and largely increase their usefulness. The total 
area to be irrigated is estimated at 370,000 acres, the 
greater part of which is in private ownership. It is a 
case where the Government is combining a number of 
small systems which had tapped, but not fully developed, 
the resources of the basin, into one comprehensive and 
exhaustive system of works. This enterprise will give a 
tremendous impetus to the growth of southern Idaho 
and make it one of the greatest irrigated districts in the 
West, 

Milk River, Fort Buford, and Huntley Projects, Montana. 

Montana people indulge the confident hope that there 
will ultimately be more land under government irriga- 
tion in that State than in any other part of the Union. 
Plans already in contemplation will multiply the present 
agricultural area five or six times over. But if the 
possibilities are great, the day of realization is placed 
some distance in the future because of international 

313 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMERICA 

difficulties, as well as by the magnitude of the opportu- 
nity, which calls for a very large expenditure. 

The most important project yet outlined in Montana 
is that which proposes to utilize the waters of Milk River 
near the Canadian border. As in the case of the Rio 
Grande in New Mexico and the Rio Colorado in Cali- 
fornia, international questions have arisen here which 
delay development. Thus far the Government has 
undertaken to irrigate only so much land as may be done 
from the usual flow of the stream without storage. This 
amounts to 60,000 acres. It is mostly public land and 
can be reclaimed at a cost of about $15 an acre, which 
makes it one of the cheapest propositions open to the 
settler. The district is traversed by the Great Northern 
Railway for a distance of seventy-five miles, the chief 
seat of activity being near the town of Malta. When the 
larger development is undertaken, water will be stored 
in St. Mary Lakes, whence it will be conducted by a 
large canal into the Marias River, a tributary of the 
Milk. The completion of the whole comprehensive pro- 
ject will involve a cost of between $3,000,000 and 
$4,000,000. 

The Fort Buford project, although generally credited 
to North Dakota, lies chiefly in eastern Montana. It 
will be watered from the Yellowstone. Of the total area 
(64,144 acres) 27,404 acres are in private ownership, 
22,665 in public ownership, and 14,075 owned by the 
Railroad. The lands lie in a long strip on the west side 
of the Yellowstone, sixty-five miles long and five miles 
wide at the widest part. The cost of water rights will be 
about $30 an acre. 

814 



PREPARINGHOMESFORTHEPEOPLE 

Construction has begun on the reclamation of 35,000 
acres with the waters of the Yellowstone and Bighorn. 
This is known as "the Huntley project." The Indians 
are to be provided with land in severalty, after which 
there will be an opportunity for settlers. Water rights 
will cost about $30 an acre, a cost amply justified by 
the value of the lands. 

North Platte Projects, Wyoming and NehrasTca. 

What is known as the " North Platte " or " Interstate 
project" aims at the reclamation of a vast area lying 
on both sides of the North Platte River for a distance 
of two hundred and ten miles. There are over half a 
million acres in Wyoming and about a quarter of a 
million acres in Nebraska to be prepared for cultivation 
by this single enterprise. The scheme involves the con- 
struction of three permanent dams, two temporary diver- 
sion dams, three outlet tunnels in solid rock formation, 
and several great distributing canals. The first and 
greatest of these dams is " the Pathfinder," so named in 
honor of General Fremont, situated in the great canyon 
of the Platte, ten miles above Alcova, Wyoming. It 
will require four years to complete it. 

Truckee-C arson Project, Nevada. 

What is known as " the Truckee-Carson project " will 
ultimately irrigate 375,000 acres at a cost of about $9,- 
000,000, Nine years will be required to bring it to com- 
pletion. The portion of the works put into operation on 

315 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

June 17th, 1905, will distribute water to about 50,000 
acres and represents a cost of about $1,750,000. 

The main canal now in operation diverts the water 
from the channel of the Truckee at a point twenty-four 
miles east of Reno and convej-s it through the divide to 
the Carson River, a distance of thirty-one miles. This 
canal has a capacity for the first six miles of its course 
of 1400 cubic feet per second, or 70,000 miner's inches 
under a four-inch pressure, and, for the remainder of 
its course, of 1200 cubic feet per second. There are three 
tunnels, all lined with concrete, as are two miles of the 
canal outside of the tunnels. The main canal discharges 
its water into a natural reservoir on the Carson and flows 
thence four and one-half miles to the diversion dam at 
the head of the distributing system, where it is led out 
upon the land in two wide-reaching canals, one on each 
side of the river. The canal on the north side has a 
capacity of 450 cubic feet per second; that on the south 
side, a capacity of 1500 cubic feet per second. With their 
main branches, these waterways will ultimately have a 
total length of over 90 miles, while the laterals and drain- 
ditches to be constructed in Carson Sink Valley alone 
will aggregate fully 1200 miles. 

The dam in the Carson at the head of the distributing 
system is something to bring a smile of satisfaction to 
the faces of those who have known the crude brush 
dams of the pioneers and the endless difficulties which 
arose from them. This government dam is a solid con- 
crete structure, built for a thousand years. It furnishes 
an absolute guaranty of a permanent water supply to 



316 










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PEEPAKINGH0]\IESF0RT1IEPE0PLE 

the settlers. This, indeed, is the character of all the 
work the Government has done. 

The land to be irrigated is located in a number of 
valleys along the Truckee and Carson Rivers, extending 
on each side from the Central Pacific Railroad, the 
greatest distance from the road being twenty-five miles. 
The soil is adapted to alfalfa and other forage crops, 
potatoes, onions, beets, and other vegetables, apples, pears, 
berries, and similar hardy fruit. 

Nearly all the land now irrigated was public property 
until recently filed upon, after the works were under- 
taken. Some of it is still open, but this condition will 
not continue long. No price is charged for the land, 
except filing fees, which are nominal. But the settler 
must repay the cost of irrigation in ten annual instal- 
ments, without interest. This amounts to $26 an acre, 
of which about $10 an acre has been incurred by the 
provision of drainage facilities, made imperatively neces- 
sary as a means of removing the heavy alkali deposits. 
The settler is fortunate to be able to make his home where 
conditions have been scientifically ascertained in advance 
and where the best engineering skill, together with abun- 
dant capital, have been available to make the most 
thorough preparation for his success. 

Hondo Project, New Mexico. 

The construction of efficient and enduring reclama- 
tion works in Arizona and New Mexico presents prob- 
lems peculiar to those regions. The torrential character 
of the streams, with their powerful floods in the rainy 

317 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

season, the heavy silt carried, the absence of rain during 
the major portion of the 3"ear, and the consequent de- 
pendence of agriculture upon water storage, make special 
constructions necessary in all branches of the work. 

The principal project upon which the Government is 
engaged in New Mexico, is known as " the Hondo proj- 
ect," and is situated on the Hondo River, a tributary 
of the Pecos, twelve miles southwesterly from Roswell, 
in Chaves County. Roswell is the seat of this county, 
and is on the Pecos Valley & Northeastern Railroad. 
The tract to be reclaimed consists of about 10,000 acres, 
almost entirely in private ownership. The total cost 
is estimated at $275,000, or $27.50 per acre. 

The works consist of a storage reservoir on the north 
side of the Hondo River, with appropriate canals. The 
Rio Hondo Reservoir Water Users Association has been 
formed, has secured the subscription of 10,000 acres, 
and is co-operating with the government engineers. The 
owners of private irrigation schemes opposed the govern- 
ment project strongly, and the opposition ceased only 
when a flood washed out the private dams and canals; 
then the settlers begged the Government to come in 
and save their apple and peach orchards. This the Rec- 
lamation Service is doing, and has hastened the work 
as much as possible. The work is now well forward, and 
the water will soon be ready for delivery from the new 
canals. 

BismarcJc and Buford-Trenton Projects, North Dakota. 

In western North Dakota a number of projects are 
being developed for the reclamation of flat lands lying 

318 




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PREPARING HOMES FOE THE PEOPLE 

at considerable elevations above the Missouri River. 
These projects involve the most extensive use of pumping 
plants yet undertaken, but this obstacle will be overcome 
by the use of the cheap and abundant coal taken from 
public lands near b3^ 

The Bismarck project, near the city of Bismarck, in- 
volves the reclamation of about 15,000 acres, mostly 
private lands, $250,000 having been set apart for the 
work. 

The Buford-Trenton pumping project will reclaim 
lands on the north side of the Missouri River, between the 
State boundary and Williston. About 18,000 acres are 
reclaimable, at a cost of a little over $16 per acre. 

Mallieur Project, Oregon. 

No State offers greater attractions for national enter- 
prise, in the way of large areas of fertile desert lands and 
abundant water supply, than Oregon. It is, perhaps, un- 
fortunate for the State that so many of the best irriga- 
tion propositions were allowed to be undertaken by pri- 
vate enterprise under the " Carey Act," thus shutting 
the Reclamation Service out of a large part of its best 
field of operations. 

The enterprise known as " the Malheur project " is 
the principal government undertaking in Oregon. The 
lands lie in the east-central part of the State, on the 
Malheur River, in the valley of the same name, on both 
sides of the river, and extending from the town of Vale 
to the Snake River. About 100,000 acres will be re- 
claimed, at a cost of about $30 an acre. 

319 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

The elevation is from 2150 to 2350 feet. The lands 
are said to be exceptionally fertile, and lie partly in the 
valley and partly on the benches. Nearly half are public 
lands. The district to be irrigated lies near Payette, 
Idaho, on the opposite side of the river, and the condi- 
tions are similar. 

The method of reclamation will be by storing the sum- 
mer flow of the Malheur and its tributaries in reservoirs 
at the head of the drainage basin, which can be done 
without injury to present water users. The present plans 
contemplate works on the Owyhee and Willow Creek, 
both being tributaries of the Malheur, and are capable of 
considerable extension. 

Bellefourche Project, South Dakota. 

Lying on both sides of the Bellefourche River, in Butte 
and Meade counties, South Dakota, lies a tract of irri- 
gable land consisting of about 85,000 acres. The work 
of its reclamation is being undertaken, under the name 
of the " Bellefourche project." This land is yet princi- 
pally public land, and has had little value hitherto for 
anything except grazing. The cost of its reclamation 
will be about $30 an acre. The region is well supplied 
with railroad facilities, three lines traversing or passing 
near it. 

A large basin east of the town of Bellefourche is to 
be converted into a reservoir by the construction of an 
earth embankment, riprapped with rock, across Owl 
Creek, a tributary of the Bellefourche. Other water sup- 
plies will be obtained in a similar manner from near-by 
creeks and brought in by feeder canals. 

320 



PREPARING HOMES FOE THE PEOPLE 

Palouse River Project, Washington. 

"The Palouse River project" is the principal pro- 
ject now under way in Washington. The lands lie be- 
tween the Columbia River on the west and the Snake 
River on the south, and extend from the town of Connell 
to the town of Pasco. About 100,000 acres are to be re- 
claimed, at a cost of about $30 an acre. Most of the 
lands are in private ownership. 

The summer flow of the Palouse River is insufficient 
to irrigate these lands, and it is therefore necessary to 
store the flood waters. This will be done by a series of 
reservoirs. The lands to be reclaimed are of variable 
character, those in the upper part of the tract having a 
light soil, about the consistency of flour, such as is so 
prevalent in arid regions. In the lower portion, this is 
mixed with a large proportion of sand. 

At Connell and Eltopia the conditions are favorable 
for pumping water to higher elevations with power de- 
veloped by a drop in the main canal. The region is sur- 
rounded by excellent lands on which dry wheat farming 
is practiced with varying success. These lands, unfortu- 
nately, lie too high to be irrigated from this source. The 
transportation facilities are good. 

Slioslione Project, Wi/oming. 

After 3'ears of effort to bring about the reclamation 

of his beautiful domain by means of private enterprise, 

Col. William F. Cody has had the happiness of seeing 

Uncle Sam take hold of the work. This is what is offi- 

Y 321 



THE CONQUEST OF AEID AMEEICA 

daily known as " the Slioshone project." It involves the 
reclamation of about 160,000 acres of fertile lands in 
Bighorn County, on the north side of the Shoshone 
River, near the town of Cody. 

Nearly all this land had been segregated under the 
" Carey Act " when the government engineers began to 
consider the project ; but the State had not yet begun the 
work, and therefore relinquished its rights. Col. Cody 
also transferred his rights in the waters of the Shoshone 
River to the Government. 

The main diversion dam is at the head of the Box 
Canyon, a gorge 210 feet deep, 85 feet wide on the bot- 
tom and 165 on top. The water will be spread over the 
bench lands lying on the north side of the river for 45 
miles. These works are among the largest and most 
important yet undertaken by the Reclamation Service. 

Where More Homes Will he Made. 

The foregoing are all the projects which have been 
formally approved by the Secretary of the Interior and 
money set aside from the reclamation fund for their con- 
struction, or work already begun.* There are secondary 
projects in all the arid States and Territories, in various 
conditions of forwardness, many of which involve large 
engineering constructions, and a few of which cover vast 
areas. It is impossible to give them more than the brief- 
est reference here. 

Arizona has the San Carlos project, which was care- 
fully considered, but laid aside for the Salt River pro- 
ject. It will reclaim 100,000 acres on the San Carlos 

* Up to September, 1905. 
332 



PEEPARIXGHOMESFOKTHEPEOPLE 

River. The basin of the Little Colorado River, and other 
promising localities, are also being studied. 

It is possible that the largest of all the government 
irrigation projects may grow out of the investigations 
now being made in the Sacramento Valley, in California. 
It would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the 
immensity of the task. 

Investigations begun on the western slope of San Diego 
County are the first undertaken under the new plan of 
co-operation between local irrigation districts and the 
Reclamation Service. If they bring results, this may 
be the beginning of a new day in the irrigation develop- 
ment of Arid America. 

Colorado has a number of promising projects. On the 
Grand River, near the City of Grand Junction, 60,000 
acres are to be reclaimed. The White River project in- 
volves 90,000 acres in Rio Blanco and Routt counties, 
near the town of Meeker. A chain of reservoir sites are 
being planned in the Rocky Mountain region of south- 
western Colorado, for the purpose of controlling the flow 
of the Colorado for the benefit of irrigation upon its lower 
course. 

The coming project in Idaho is known as " the Dubois 
project," for the reclamation of about 200,000 acres in 
Blaine and Fremont counties from the headwaters of the 
Snake River. 

Kansas has no projects now under construction, but 
the Government is investigating the underground flow of 
the Arkansas River in the vicinity of Garden City and an 
allotment of $49,903 has been made for the purpose of 
installing a pumping plant by which it is hoped to re- 

323 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

claim about 2,000 acres. The success of this undertaking 
is expected to be very useful in the teaching of scientific 
methods to the farmers. 

Montana has a number of promising projects. That on 
the Sun Eiver is expected to reclaim about 200,000 acres 
of public lands. 

Reconnaissances are being made of the Niobrara and 
Snake Rivers, northeastern Nebraska. 

Extensive surveys of the Walker and Humboldt 
rivers are being made in Nevada, as well as a general 
investigation of the problems of seepage and drainage in 
that State. 

New Mexico has a number of promising projects. The 
Urton Lake project, in Guadalupe and Chaves Counties, 
will open about 60,000 acres of public land to settlement. 
The La Plata project will reclaim 50,000 acres in San 
Juan County. The Las Vegas grant, near the City of 
Las Vegas, is to be surrendered to the Government by its 
owners in return for its irrigation, and it will then be 
open to settlers. This is the first instance of the kind in 
the history of the irrigation work. 

Work in North Dakota consists of a general search for 
reservoir sites and feasible projects, gaging of streams, 
and examination of pumping projects in the western por- 
tion of the State. The large areas of good coal which is 
easily to be mined upon public lands, makes this region 
peculiarly adapted to the establishment of successful 
pumping plants. 

Oklahoma is awake to the advantages of national irri- 
gation. Investigations are being made of the watersheds 
of the Cimarron, Canadian, and other rivers, and for 

324 



PREPARING HO ]\IESFORTHEPEOPLE 

resen-oir sites and underground waters in the arid region 
of its western panhandle. The " Otter Creek project " 
is expected to reclaim about 40,000 acres of Valley land 
lying south of Mountain Park. 

The secondary projects in Oregon are principally for 
the reclamation of high-lying valleys in more or less re- 
mote districts. Some of them have had to be abandoned 
on account of prohibitive cost of the work. A very large 
area is involved. Those projects which seem to be yet 
alive at this time are the Silver Lake project near the 
lake of that name in Lake County ; the Ana River project, 
between Summer and Silver lakes, in the same county; 
the Chewaucan project, near Paisley, Lake County; and 
the Silver Creek project, near the town of Riley, in Har- 
ney County. 

South Dakota has the Cheyenne project, by which it 
is expected that 40,000 acres will ultimately be reclaimed, 
near the town of Edgemont. 

It is matter of regret that the Utah projects cannot be 
described in detail. The whole water system of the State 
is being studied and works planned upon a comprehen- 
sive scale. The first work undertaken will doubtless be 
the lowering of the level of Utah Lake, to diminish the 
evaporation and increase its sources of supply. It is 
estimated that by this means the irrigated area in the 
Jordan Valley can be increased 60,000 acres. Other 
projects are known as the " Bear Lake " and " Straw- 
berry Valley " projects, both extensive and important. 

Two coming projects sustain the hope of the people 
of Washington. The Okanogan project contemplates 
the reclamation of a large tract in the county and from 

325 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 

the river of that name. The Big Bend project is one of 
the largest in the Arid West, and may ultimately involve 
a million acres, in the bend surrounded by the Columbia 
River on the west, the Snake River on the south, and the 
high wheat lands of the Palouse region on the north and 
east. The Yakima Valle}^, Priest Rapids, and Kootenai 
Basin, are regions where the water supply and lands are 
being investigated. 

In Wyoming, the Lake De Smet project, in Johnson 
and Sheridan counties, is under consideration. Large 
areas are involved, principally in private ownership. In 
the Big Bend of the Wind River Mountains, a part of 
the Shoshone Indian Reservation, there are about 230,000 
acres of good lands, the reclamation of which may be 
undertaken soon. 

The plans of the Reclamation Service are developing so 
rapidly that any record of its work must be regarded as 
merely temporary. Its investigations are being prose- 
cuted constantly and it may very likely happen that 
some of its most important undertakings in the early 
future will be such as are not mentioned in these pages. 
Enough has been said, however, to indicate the varied 
character of its work and to furnish the intending settler 
with information of some value. 



326 



CONCLUSION 

man's partnership with god 

Some one has said that God never made a world ; that 
He started several, including the one on which we dwell, 
but that He depends on man, working in partnership 
with Him and in harmony with the laws of the universe, 
to bring the world to completion. 

There are conditions in Arid America which make men 
peculiarly conscious of their partnership with God or 
Universal Purpose. They seem, indeed, to begin where 
God left off and to go forward with the actual material 
creation of the world. Here, the English-speaking race 
entered into a new environment. Nature had done what 
it would, then withdrawn and left its unfinished task to 
the ingenuity of man. 

The waste of desert and mountain has been unsympa- 
thetically called " the land that God forgot." Time will 
show, and already time has begun to show, that above 
all other sections Arid America is the God-remembered 
land. He evidently remembered that somewhere there 
must be a place where man should become supremely 
alive to his divinity — that somewhere he must be driven 
by the club of necessity into a brotherhood of labor — 
that somewhere the material must be blended with the 

327 



MAN'S PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD 

spiritual until man should stand erect, the conscious 
partnership of the universe. 

The first thought that comes to the man of insight on 
viewing the region is the utter futility of individual 
effort in the stupendous struggle with nature. There is 
soil fertile and enduring heyond that of any other land, 
but nature neglects to water it with unfailing rains. 
The men of an earlier and more superstitious age would 
have fallen on their knees in prayer; but an eternity of 
such prayers would bring no response from the smiling 
sky. Men learn from their environment a better way. to 
pray. 

Conforming their methods to the laws of the universe 
and entering into glad partnership with God, they follow 
the torrential stream to its mountain sources, discover 
the reservoir sites which nature provided at the right 
elevation to command the valley and to furnish power 
with wliich to bring the hidden water from the bowels of 
the earth ; and thus, blending science with religion, and 
the material with the spiritual, their prayers are an- 
swered with fullest measure of blessings, — blessings, as 
we saw in earlier pages, infinitely superior to those which 
come to other lands by dependence upon rainfall. 

This process not only brings men close to Divinity in 
nature; it brings them close to Divinity in man. 
Brotherhood becomes compulsory, — they must work to- 
gether, must work with and for each other rather than 
against each other. They are enlisted in a common effort 
for the accomplishment of a common good. The welfare 
of each is the concern of all. '^ Bear ye one another's bur- 
dens " is the stern mandate written on the face of nature 

328 



THE CONQUEST OF AKID AMERICA 

and borne on the voice of the flood. Men are compelled 
by force of circumstances to labor en masse and in har- 
mony with the universe. 

But it is not only when men are working together at a 
common task that they are conscious of the divine part- 
nership. The man who works intelligently in creating his 
irrigated farm with the raw materials of land and water, 
knows that in this smaller sphere he is engaged in finish- 
ing the world. He feels himself to be an instrument in 
the process of evolution. His constant study is to learn 
the secret of his environment and to shape his industry 
in such a way as to attain the best results. If he were 
tilling his ancestral acres in Maine or Kentucky, he would 
follow the methods of his forefathers, but would not be 
driven by necessity to experiment with the amount of 
moisture required for different crops, the manner of 
applying it to orchard, garden, and field, the temperatures 
of water and soil, or the drainage of his land by natural 
and artificial means. In other words, he would not be 
conscious of his part in the practical evolution of nature's 
raw materials into civilization's finished product. 

There have been countless instances of men who came 
from the stagnant life of established communities to 
settle in such progressive colonies as Greeley, Colorado, 
or Eiverside, California, and developed into scientists of 
the most practical sort. They had no choice in the mat- 
ter; they must adapt themselves to new conditions in 
order to prosper. In so doing, they necessarily co-oper- 
ated with Universal Purpose in finishing the world. 

The same influence is dominant in the formation of 

institutions. Laws and customs must conform to en- 

339 



MAN'S PARTNEKSHIP WITH GOD 

vironment, and to the work to be done under the condi- 
tions which environment imposes. The first requirement 
is scientific knowledge of these conditions; the next, 
adaptation of institutions in conformity with these as- 
certained facts. 

To proceed in the making of your farm, in the develop- 
ment of a great region, in the formation of institutions, 
by knowledge rather than by chance, is a profoundly re- 
ligious thing. Irrigation, for example, is a religious 
rite. Such a prayer for rain is intelligent, scientific, 
worthy of man's divinity. And it is answered. To put 
knowledge in place of superstition is the first step which 
men take in entering into partnership with God. 

All labor done in the spirit of this partnership is a 
blending of the material with the spiritual. It is in- 
spired by knowledge of universal law; it aims at the 
accomplishment of results in line with Universal Pur- 
pose. Then labor ceases to be drudgery and becomes 
beautiful. 

And the relations of brotherhood which men necessarily 
sustain to each other under such conditions represent the 
essence of religion, for they are inspired by the love of 
humanity. 

Men have too often proceeded in defiance of universal 
laws, so far as they could do so and exist. They have 
wasted the bounty of nature where they should have con- 
served it; defaced the landscape where they should have 
beautified it; dissipated their strength in fighting each 
other where they should have combined their strength and 
worked together; degraded toil where they should have 
ennobled and glorified it. All this they have done because 

330 



THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMEEICA 

no imperative necessity compelled them to make the ac- 
quaintance of God and work hand-in-haud with Him in 
finishing the world. 

It is the fortune of Arid America to be so palpably 
crude material that it can not be used at all, save upon 
the divine terms. 



THE END. 



331 



APPENDIX I 



NOTE AS TO METHODS OF IRRIGATION 

To those who are unfamiliar with the life of the arid region 
the actual process of irrigation seems a deep mystery. They 
regard it as an effort to overturn the laws of nature, and 
think it must be accompanied by a struggle as severe as it is 
inscrutable. But irrigation is, after all, a perfectly natural, 
and even a familiar, process. The man who waters his plat 
of grass and the woman who waters her door-yard pansies 
are irrigators in a rude and humble way. The citizen who 
grumbles at the sight of withered lawns in a public park 
during a dry summer yearns for irrigation without knowing 
it. A generation which has harnessed the lightning should 
see nothing incongruous in the ancient expedient of storing 
the rain and distributing it to meet the varying needs of 
plants which nourish human life. 

The control of water for irrigation in the West presents 
about the same problems to the engineer as the control of 
water for domestic purposes in large cities and towns. The 
water must be diverted from a tlovvinor stream at a level suf- 
ficiently high to command the territory to be irrigated ; or it 
must be impounded in reservoirs at a season of floods or un- 
usual flow, such as occurs everywhere when the ice and snow 
are melting ; or it must be sought in the bowels of the earth 
by means of wells and lifted to the surface by pumps, except 

333 



APPENDIX I 

in the case of artesian waters, which flow out of the mouth of 
the well by reason of their own pressure. 

The principal difference between securing a supply for do- 
mestic and for agricultural purposes is that in the case of the 
former the water must be as pure as possible, while in the 
case of the latter the impurities which gather in ponds and 
streams have a distinct commercial value as fertilizers. The 
sewage of Paris is used for irrigation purposes with wonder- 
ful effect. The same thing is done at Los Angeles, and 
doubtless will be done in many places hereafter. Neither is 
it necessary, as a rule, to make such elaborate provision for 
the distribution of water through underground pipes in the 
case of agriculture as in that of domestic water supply. In 
the vast majority of instances irrigation water flows in open 
channels. Where it is otherwise it is because the precious 
fluid is scarce, and therefore dear, so that every drop must be 
guarded against loss by evaporation or by seepage into the 
ground. 

Irrigation works in the West range from rude and simple 
ditches, taking their supplies from mountain brooks where 
the water has been diverted by means of small brush dams, to 
great masonry walls which block the outlet of deep canyons, 
holding back the water, which is transported through pipes, 
flumes, and cemented ditches to rich lands miles away. In the 
one case the works have been constructed by a small association 
of farmers, using their own labor and teams ; in the other, 
millions of eastern and foreign capital have been invested. 
In both cases the water is led through main canals to central 
points in the territory to be reclaimed. These mains are of 
all sizes, depending entirely upon the volume of water re- 
quired. They are frequently not more than six feet wide, 
though some of the canals in the San Joaquin Valley are one 
hundred and twenty feet in width. From these mains lat- 
eral ditches reach out in various directions. The individual 
farmer taps the lateral with a shallow ditch, usually made 

334 



APPENDIX I 

with a plough, and thus conducts the water where he wants it 
through his own private system of distributers. The man- 
agement of the waters, when the system has once been per- 
fected, is so simple that a child can attend to it. Furnishing 
arid lands with irrigation facilities is really a less formidable 
task than supplying cities with water for domestic and fire 
purposes. The one process is no more mysterious and un- 
natural than the other. 

Although irrigation is both ancient and universal, the 
Anglo-Saxon never dealt with it in a large way until the last 
half-century, when he found it to be the indispensable condi- 
tion of settlement in large portions of western America, Aus- 
tralia, and South Africa. Through all the centuries of the 
past the art has been the exclusive possession of Indian, 
Latin, and Mongolian races. Its earliest modern traces in 
this country are found in the small gardens of the Mission 
fathers of southern California. They brought the method 
from Mexico and taught it to the Indians. But the real 
cradle of American irrigation as a practical industry is 
Utah. 

In the hands of the Indians and Mexicans of the South- 
west irrigation was a stagnant art, but the white population 
studied it with the same enthusiasm it bestowed upon elec- 
tricity and new mining processes. The lower races merely 
knew that if crops were expected to grow on dry land, they 
must be artificially watered. They proceeded to pour on the 
water by the rudest method. The Anglo-Saxon demanded to 
know why crops required water, and how and when it could 
best be supplied to meet their diverse needs. He has thus 
approached by gradual steps true scientific methods, which 
are producing results unknown before in any part of the 
world. 

The earliest method of irrigation is known as " flooding," 
and is generally applied by means of shallow basins. A plot 
of ground near the river or ditch from which water is to be 

335 



APPENDIX I 

drawn is inclosed by low embankments called checks. These 
checks are multiplied until the whole field is covered. The 
water is then drawn into the highest basin, permitted to 
stand until the ground is thoroughly soaked, and then drawn 
ofi by a small gate into the next basin. This process is re- 
peated until the entire field is irrigated. This is the system 
practised on the Nile, where the basins sometimes cover sev- 
eral square miles each, while in the West they are often no 
more than four hundred feet square. There is both a crude 
and a skilful way to accomplish the operation of flooding, and 
there is a wide difEerence in the results obtained by the two 
methods. The Indian and Mexican irrigators, in their igno- 
rance and laziness, seldom attempt to grade the surface of the 
ground. They permit water to remain in stagnant pools 
where there are depressions, while high places stand out as 
dusty islands for generations. All except very sandy soils 
bake in the hot sunshine after being flooded, and the crude 
way to remedy the matter is to turn on more water. Water 
in excess is an injury, and both the soil and the crops re- 
sent this method of treatment. 

The skilful irrigator grades the soil to an even slope of 
about one inch to every hundred inches, filling depressions 
and levelling high places. He "rushes" the water over the 
plot as rapidly as possible, and when the ground has dried 
sufficiently cultivates the soil thoroughly, thus allowing the 
air to penetrate it. The best irrigators have abandoned the 
check system altogether, and have invented better methods 
of flooding the crops. Cereals and grasses must always be 
irrigated by flooding, but the check system seems likely to 
remain only in the land of Spanish speech and tradition, where 
it was born. In Colorado wheat and grass are generally irri- 
gated by a system of shallow plough furrows run diagonally 
across a field. The water is turned from these upon the 
ground, and permitted to spread out into a hundred small 
rills, following the contour of the land. Some farmers be- 

336 



APPENDIX I 

stow great pains upon this method, and succeed in wetting 
the ground very evenly. Another method of flooding fields 
is now much used in connection with alfalfa, a wonderful 
forage plant extensively cultivated throughout the arid region. 
This produces three crops a year in the north and six crops 
in the south, and is not only eaten by stock, but by poultry 
and swine. To find the best method of watering this valua- 
ble crop has been the object of careful study and experiment 
in the West. It is now accomplished by means of shallow 
indentations or creases, which are not as large as furrows, but 
accomplish the same purpose. These are made by a simple 
implement at intervals of about twelve inches. They effect a 
very thorough and even wetting of the ground. 

The scientific side of irrigation is to be studied rather in 
connection with the culture of fruit and vegetables than with 
field crops. It is here that the English-speaking irrigators 
of the West have produced their best results. California has 
accomplished more than any other locality, but nothing was 
learned even there until the man from the North had sup- 
planted the Spanish irrigator. The ideal climatic conditions 
of California attracted both wealth and intelligence into its 
irrigation industry. Scarcity of water and high land values 
operated to promote the study of ideal methods. Where 
water is abundant it is carried in open ditches, and little 
thought is given to the items of seepage through the soil 
and loss by evaporation. Under such conditions water is 
lavishly used, frequently to the injury rather than the bene- 
fit of crops. But in southern California water is as gold, 
and is sought for in mountain tunnels and in the beds of 
streams. A thing so dearly obtained is not to be carelessly 
wasted before it reaches the place of use. Hence, steep and 
narrow ditches cemented on the bottom, or steel pipes and 
wooden flumes, are employed. 

This precious water is applied to the soil by means of 
small furrows run between the trees or rows of vegetables. 
z 337 



APPENDIX I 

The ground has first been evenly graded on the face of each 
slope. The aim of the skilful irrigator is to allow the water 
to saturate the ground evenly in each direction, so as to 
reach the roots of the tree or plant. The stream is small, 
and creeps slowly down the furrow to the end of the orchard, 
where any surplus is absorbed by a strip of alfalfa, which 
acts like a sponge. The land is kept thoroughly cultivated, 
and in the best orchards no weed or spear of grass is ever 
seen ; the water is too costly tb waste in the nourishment 
of weeds. Moreover, it is desired to leave the soil open to 
the action of air and sunshine. Nowhere in the world is so 
much care given to the aeration of the soil as in the irrigated 
orchards and gardens of the West. Too much water reduces 
the temperature of the soil, sometimes develops hard-pan, and 
more frequently brings alkali to the surface. For these rea- 
sons modern science has enforced the economical use of 
water, reversing the crude Mexican custom of prodigal waste- 
fulness. The success of the furrow method depends some- 
what upon the texture of the soil, and there are places where 
it cannot be used at all. Such localities are not considered 
favorable to fruit culture. 

Of late years in California the application of water by fur- 
rows has been brought to a marvellous degree of perfection. 
What is known as the " Redlands system " is the best type 
of irrigation methods known in the world. Under this sys- 
tem a small wooden flume or box is placed at the head of 
the orchard. An opening is made opposite each furrow, and 
through this the water flows in the desired quantity, being 
operated by a small gate or slide. The aperture regulates 
the flow of water accurately, and the system is so simple that, 
after it is once adjusted, its operation is as easy as the turn- 
ing of a faucet. The farmer who grows his crops on a fer- 
tile soil, under almost cloudless skies, with a system con- 
trolling the moisture as effective as this, may be said to have 
mastered the forces of nature. The quality of the fruit has 

338 



APPENDIX I 

improved immensely since the California methods were per- 
fected. Every fruit-grower realizes that the profit in his 
business comes mostly from the first grade of fruit. Scien- 
tific irrigation makes it possible for him largely to increase 
the percentage of the best fruit, and the difference which 
this makes in the earning capacity of his acres is surprising. 



/AVENUE 



w* 




5 _4.Ti., p.rlfc, 
• TQCtS 

©rvpQows ROwnO CACn >^ 

roo v-ATtR QUWCONX 

tJWH TOC£ 5TAJ«05 ON A LITTl£ *0E)DCC) 

^ILL SO nion At TO PntvENT 
\'1Z V^ATCP TOOtMINCj IT. 



Other methods of furrow irrigation have been devised 
which are scarcely less perfect than those used in the Cali- 
fornia orange districts. One of the best of these is the re- 
sult of the labors and experiments of Professor A. E. Blount, 
of the Agricultural College at Las Cruces, New Mexico, and 
is illustrated in the accompanying diagram. In this case the 
water is carried in small open ditches, and the furrows are 

339 



APPENDIX I 

extended in circles around each tree, but the water is never 
allowed to touch the bark. This method is, perhaps, better 
adapted to the general needs of the arid region than the 
more expensive plan of the Californians. It is interesting to 
note that the modern New Mexico method was developed in 
the midst of Indian and Spanish settlements, which still pur- 
sue the methods of antiquity without the slightest abatement 
of their evils. 

One of the most interesting results of irrigation, in a social 
and economic way, is its influence upon the density of popu- 
lation. The densest population in the eastern States obtains 
in Rhode Island, where there are two hundred and seventy- 
six persons to each square mile. In a representative locality 
of southern California, which is in the midst of the older 
settled irrigated districts, there are five hundred persoas to 
the square mile, practically all of them engaged in horticult- 
ure by means of irrigation. The Nile lands of Egypt sup- 
port a population of twelve hundred and twenty-seven persons 
to the square mile. There is, therefore, no risk whatever in 
predicting that the arid lands of the AVest will ultimately 
sustain much the densest population in the United States, 

While the perfect conditions for the irrigation industry 
exist only in an arid land, there is no doubt that the same 
methods can and will be used largely in the eastern portion 
of the United States. There is seldom a year when large 
districts east of the Mississippi do not suffer heavy losses 
from the lack of rain at the time when it is needed. What 
irrigation can accomplish under such conditions has been 
strikingly illustrated by Dr. Clarke Gapen, Superintendent of 
the State Insane Asylum at Kankakee, Illinois. This gentle- 
man became convinced that if he could control the moisture 
during the dry period of the Illinois summer, he could readi- 
ly produce, on the farm operated in connection with the pub- 
lic institution, the large quantities of late vegetables which 

340 



APPENDIX I 

he had been in the habit of purchasing for cash. He ob- 
tained an inexpensive pumping- plant and engaged the ser- 
vices of a practised irrigator. The result was the saving of 
an annual expenditure of fifteen thousand dollars for farni 
products, so that the irrigation system more than paid for it- 
self the first year. Dr. Gapen has stated that the experiment 
convinced him " that if land is worth one hundred dollars 
per acre in Illinois without irrigation, it is worth five hundred 
dollars with it." If this enterprising official had suggested 
ten years before that irrigation was necessary in Illinois, he 
would have been regarded as a proper subject for one of the 
padded cells in his own asylum. 

The local application of irrigation is now frequently dis- 
cussed in the farm journals of Ohio, New York, and other east- 
ern States. The art has been employed for a number of years 
in the most profitable market-gardens about Boston. The 
western friends of irrigation have the utmost confidence that 
during the next century their methods will be extensively 
adopted in the East, resulting in a very great reduction of the 
average farm unit, in the assurance of much larger and better 
crops, and in wonderful social gains. 



811 



APPENDIX II 

THE NEWLANDS BILL, AND THE ACT OF 
JUNE 17, 1902 

The following is the text of the original Newlands 
Irrigation Bill, introduced January 26, 1901, before the 
appointment of the famous Committee of Seventeen and 
nearly eight months prior to the accession of President 
Eoosevelt : 

"Beit enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
all moneys received from the sale and disposal of public lands 
in the arid and semi-arid States and Territories beginning with 
the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and 
one, excepting those set aside by law for educational purposes, 
sliall be reserved and set aside for the creation of a fund in the 
Treasury, to be known as the ' arid land reclamation fund,' for 
the construction of reservoirs and other hydraulic works for 
the storage and diversion of water for the irrigation and 
I'eclamation of arid land. 

" Sec. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior, by means of the 
Director of the Geological Survey, be, and liereby is, directed 
to continue the examination of that portion of the arid region 
of the United States where agriculture is carried on by means 
of irrigation as to the advantages for the storage of water for 
irrigating purposes, of the practicability of constructing reser- 
voirs, together with the capacity of the streams and the cost of 
construction and capacity of reservoirs, and such other facts 
as bear on the question of storage of water for irrigating pur- 
poses as required by the Act approved March twentieth, eight- 
een hundred and eighty-eight and also, to investigate the 

343 



APPENDIX II 

practicability of diverting large rivers by means of tunnels or 
other works, and of providing supplies by means of artesian 
vrells. 

" Sec. 3. That the Director of the Geological Survey shall 
from time to time make reports to the Secretary of the Interior 
as to each of various proposed reservoirs, diverting canals, or 
other methods of procuring water, said reports to show the 
location, cost of construction, quantity, and location of such 
land as can be irrigated, as well as the other facts relative to 
the practicability of the enterprise. 

" Sec. 4. That upon the filing of such report the Secretary of 
the Interior may, in his discretion, withdraw from public entry 
the lands required for reservoir or other hydraulic works, to- 
gether with the public lands which it is proposed to irrigate 
from such works. 

" Sec. 5. That upon the determination by the Secretary of 
the Interior that each of the said projects of reclamation is 
pi'acticable he shall cause to be let, upon proper public notice, 
contracts for the construction of the same, in whole or in part, 
payments to be made from the arid land reclamation fund ; 
Provided, That no such contract shall be let until the necessary 
funds are available: And provided further, That in all con- 
struction work eight hours shall constitute a day's work and 
rone but citizen labor shall be employed. 

"Sec. 6. That upon the completion of each irrigation pro- 
ject, the total cost thereof shall be ascertained and tiie amount 
divided pro rata per acre of the lands to be irrigated thereby, 
and that said amount shall be made a charge against the lands 
as the cost of a right to the use of water from said system of 
irrigation, and that said public lands shall be subject to home- 
stead entry, after notice by the Secretary of the Interior, upon 
the condition that in addition to the requirements of the home- 
stead Act the entryman shall make payment to the Govern- 
ment of the cost per acre of water right as above ascertained, 
said payment to be niade in not to exceed ten annual instal- 
ments, and each entryman shall be limited to the entry and 
settlement of eighty acres, or such lesser amount as the Secre- 
tary of the Interior may designate, and the moneys thus re- 

343 



APPENDIX II 

ceived shall be covered into the arid land reclamation fund : 
Provided further, That the right to the use of water shall be 
perpetually appurtenant to the land irrigated, and beneficial 
use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right. 

" Sec. 7. That in case the water thus provided shall be more 
than sufficient for the reclamation of the public lands, or if 
land in private ownership has been found by the survey above 
authorized to be better suited for the utilization of the stored 
or divided waters, or if there is a sufficiency for both, then the 
right to use such water may be sold at the rate as above ascer- 
tained and under the same terms ; but no water right shall be 
granted to any landowner or occupant for an amount exceed- 
ing eiglity acres. The proceeds of such sales shall be covered 
into the arid land reclamation fund. 

" Sec. 8. That the following shall be considered as arid land 
and semi-arid land States and Territories within the meaning 
of this Act : Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, 
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, 
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, 
Wyoming." 

Following is the full text of the present law : 

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress asscmhled. That all 
moneys received from the sale and disj^osal of public lands in 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Ne- 
braska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, 
South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, beginning 
with the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred 
and one, including the surplus of fees and commissions in ex- 
cess of allowances to registei's and receivers, and excepting the 
five per centum of the proceeds of tlie sales of public lands in 
the above States set aside by law for educational and other pur- 
poses, shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved, set aside, 
and appropriated as a special fund in the Treasury to be known 
as the ' reclamation fund,' to be used in the examination and 
survey for and the construction and maintenance of irrigation 
works for the storage, diversion, and development of waters for 

344 



APPENDIX II 

the reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in the said States 
and Territories, and for the payment of all other expenditures 
provided for in tliis Act : Provided, That in case the I'eceipts 
from the sale and disposal of public lands other than those 
realized from the sale and disposal of lands referred to in this 
section are insufficient to meet the requirements for the support 
of agricultural colleges in the several States and Territories, 
under the Act of August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, 
entitled ' An act to apply a portion of the proceeds of the pub- 
lic lands to the more complete endowment and support of the 
colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, es- 
tablished under the provisions of an Act of Congress approved 
July second, eighteen hundred and sixty -two,' the deficiency, 
if any, in the sum necessary for the support of the said colleges 
shall be provided for fi'om any moneys in the Treasury not 
otherwise appropriated. 

" Sec. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby author- 
ized and directed to make examinations and surveys for, and to 
locate and construct, as herein provided, irrigation works for 
the storage, diversion, and development of waters, includ- 
ing artesian wells, and to report to Congress at the beginning 
of each regular session as to the results of such examinations 
and surveys, giving estimates of cost of all contemplated works, 
the quantity and location of the lands which can be irrigated 
therefrom, and all facts relative to the practicability of each 
irrigation project ; also the cost of works in process of con- 
struction as well as of those which have been completed. 

"Sec. 3. Tliat the Secretary of the Interior shall, before 
giving the public notice provided for in section four of this Act, 
withdraw from public entry the lands required for any irriga- 
tion works contemplated under the provisions of this Act, and 
shall restore to public entry any of the lands so withdrawn 
when, in his judgment, such lands are not required for the 
purposes of this Act ; and the Secretary of the Interior is here- 
by authorized, at or immediately prior to the time of beginning 
the surveys for any contemplated irrigation works, to willidraw 
from entry, except under the homestead laws, any public lands 
believed to be susceptible of irrigation from said works ; Pro- 

345 



APPENDIX II 

vided, That all lands entered and entries made under the home- 
stead laws within areas so withdrawn during such withdrawal 
shall be subject to all the provisions, limitations, charges, terms, 
and conditions of this Act ; that said surveys shall be prosecu- 
ted diligently to completion, and upon the completion thereof, 
and of the necessary maj^s, plans, and estimates of cost, the 
Secretary of the Interior shall determine whether or not said 
project is practicable and advisable, and if determined to be 
impracticable or unadvisable he shall thereupon restore said 
lands to entry ; that public lands which it is proposed to irri- 
gate by means of any contemplated works shall be subject to 
entry only under the pi'ovisions of the homestead laws in tracts 
of not less than forty nor more than one hundred and sixtj' 
acres, and shall be subject to the limitations, charges, terms, 
and conditions herein provided : Pi'ovided, That the commuta- 
tion provisions of the homestead laws shall not apply to entries 
made under this Act. 

"Sec. 4. That ujjon the determination by the Secretary of 
the Interior that any irrigation project is practicable, he may 
cause to be let contracts for the construction of the same, in 
such portions or sections as it may be practicable to construct 
and complete as parts of the whole project, providing the neces- 
sary funds for such portions or sections are available in the rec- 
lamation fund, and thereupon he shall give public notice of 
the lands irrigable under such project, and limit of area per 
entry, which limit shall represent the acreage which, in the 
opinion of the Secretary, may be reasonably required for the 
support of a family upon the lands in question ; also of the 
charges which shall be made per acre upon the said entries, and 
upon lands in private ownership which may be irrigated by tlie 
waters of the said irrigation project, and the number of annual 
instalments, not exceeding ten, in wliich such chai'ges shall be 
paid and the time when such payments shall commence. The 
said charges shall be determined with a view of returning to 
the reclamation fund the estimated cost of construction of the 
project, and shall be apportioned equitably : Provided, That in 
all construction work eight hours shall constitute a day's work, 
and no Mongolian labor shall be employed thereon. 

346 



APPENDIX II 

" Sec. 5. That the entryman upon lands to be irrigated by 
such works shall, in addition to compliance with the liome- 
stead laws, reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area 
of his entry for agricultural purposes, and before receiving 
patent for the lands covered by his entry sliall pay to the 
Government the charges apportioned against such tract, as 
provided in section four. No right to the use of water for land 
in private ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding one 
hundred and sixty acres to any one landowner, and no such 
sale shall be made to any landowner unless lie be an actual 
bona fide resident on such land, or occupant thereof residing in 
the neighborhood of said land, and no such right shall per- 
manently attach until all payments therefor are made. The an- 
nual instalments shall be paid to the receiver of the local land 
office of the district in which the land is situated, and a failure 
to make any two pajn^.ients when due shall render the entry 
subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights under 
tlais Act, as well as of any moneys already paid thereon. All 
monej'S received from the above sources shall be paid into the 
reclamation fund. Registers and receivers shall be allowed the 
usual commissions on all moneys paid for lands entered under 
this Act. 

" Sec. 6. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby author- 
ized and directed to use the reclamation fund for the operation 
and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation works con- 
structed under the provisions of this Act : Provided, That 
when the payments required by this Act are made for the 
major portion of tlie lands irrigated from the waters of any of 
the works herein provided for, tlien the management and opera- 
tion of such irrigation works shall pass to the ov^ners of the 
lands irrignted thereby, to be maintained at their expense 
under such form of organization and under such rules and reg" 
ulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior : 
Provided, That the title to and the management and operation 
of the reservoirs and the works necessarj' for their protection 
and operation shall remain in the Government until otherwise 
provided by Congress. 

'* Sec. 7. That where in carrying out the provisions of this 

347 



APPENDIX II 

Act it becomes necessary to acquire any rights or property, the 
Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to acquire the 
same for the United States by purchase or by condemnation 
under judicial process, and to pay from the reclamation fund 
the sums which may be needed for that purpose, and it shall be 
the duty of the Attorney-General of the United States upon 
every application of the Secretary of the Interior, under this 
Act, to cause proceedings to be commenced for condemnation 
within thirty days from the receipt of the application at the 
Department of Justice. 

" Sec. 8. That nothing in this Act shall be construed as af- 
fecting or intended to affect or to in any way interfere with the 
laws of any State or Territory relating to the control, appro- 
priation, use, or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any 
vested right acquired thereunder, and the Secretary of the In- 
terior, in carrying out the provisions of this Act, shall proceed 
in conformity with such laws, and nothing lierein shall in any 
way affect any right of any State or of the Federal Government 
or of any landowner, appropriator, or user of water in, to, or 
from any interstate stream or the waters thereof : Provided, 
That the right to the use of water acquired under the provis- 
ions of this Act shall be appurtenant to the land irrigated, and 
beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of 
the right. 

" Sec. 9. That it is hereby declared to be the duty of the Secre- 
tary of the Interior in carrying out the provisions of this Act, so 
far as the same may be practicable and subject to the existence 
of feasible irrigation projects, to expend the major portion of 
the funds arising from the sale of public lands within each 
State and Territory hereinbefore named for the benefit of arid 
and semi-arid lands within the limits of such State or Territory ; 
Provided, That the Secretary may temporarily vise such portion 
of said funds for the benefit of arid or semi-arid lands in any 
particular State or Territory hereinbefore named as he may 
deem advisable, but when so used the excess shall be restored 
to the fund as soon as practicable, to the end that ultimately, 
and in any event, within each ten-year period after the passage 
of this Act, the expenditures for the benefit of the said States 

348 



APPENDIX II 

and Territories shall be equalized according to the proportions 
and subject to the conditions as to practicability and feasibility 
aforesaid. 

"Sec. 10. That the Secretaiy of the Interior is hereby au- 
thorized to perform any and all acts and to make such rules and 
regulations as may be necessary ar.d i roper for the purpose of 
can-yiug the provisions of this Act into full force and effect." 



349 



INDSX. 



Adams, Edward F., quoted, 
130. 

Africa, 13. 

Agricultural industry, persons 
engaged in, in the United 
States, 9. 

Agua Fria River, Arizona, 
249. 

Alameda, California, 155. 

Alaska, 201. 

Anaheim, California, founding 
and character of, 94. 

Ancient canals in Arizona, 35. 

Animas River, New Mexico, 
239. 

Aridity: — Effect of on settle- 
ment of Middle West, 17; is 
key to institutions of West, 
30. 

Arizona: — The budding civiliz- 
ation of, 247 ; likeness to re- 
gion of the Nile, 247 ; north- 
ern part of Territory, 248; 
Salt River Valley, 248; its 
irrigation systems, 249; im- 
portance of storage plans, 
251; Territorial Water-Stor- 
age Commission, 252; cli- 
mate, 252 ; fruit culture, 
253 ; mineral production, 
255; social elements. 250. 

Arkansas Vallev, Colorado. 
lOfi. 

Artesia, New Mexico, 243. 



Asia Minor, 32. 
Austin, Miss, 147. 
Australasia, 13. 
Aztecs in New Mexico, 34. 

Bakersfield, California, 147. 

Baldwin, Historian, 34. 

Bear Flag, California's day of, 

94. 
Beaverhead Valley, Montana, 

233. 
Bee, The Omaha, 206. 
Bell, Representative John C, 

276. 
Berkeley, California, 155. 
Billings, Montana, 237. 
Bitter Root Valley, Montana, 

235. 
Blue grass region of Kentucky, 

compared with arid region, 

39. 
Boone, Daniel, 15. 
Boothe, C. B., 273. 
Boyd, David, Historian of 

Greeley Colony, 88. 
Bozeman, ^lontana, 235. 
Brisbane, Albert, 77. 
Brodie, Governor Alex. O., 

quoted, 2.")1. 
Brook Farm, 78. 
Bullfrog, Nevada, 213. 
Butte, Montana, 236. 

Cache la Poudre Valley, Colo- 
rado, 106. 



351 



INDEX 



California: — The Empire State 
of the Pacific, 121 ; why so 
little understood, 121; influ- 
ence of former literature on 
the subject, 123; speculative 
tendencies of the past, 128 ; 
burdens of fruit-growers be- 
fore co-operation began, 
130; valuable lessons of past 
twenty years, 131; the State 
compared with France, 131; 
agricultural settlements be- 
tween 1890-1900, 132; 
profitable lines of produc- 
tion, 133; future of the 
olive industry, 134; compet- 
itors in fruit growing, 135 
the mining industry, 136 
tendencies of future growth 
137; the coast region, 137 
the Santa Clara Valley, 138 
Southern California, 139 
Sacramento Valley, 141 
San Joaquin Valley, 140 
birth of raisin industry, 
147 ; eflfects of fall in price 
of wheat, 148; possibilities 
of transportation canals, 
149; eastern slope of the 
Sierra Nevada, 150; Color- 
ado Desert, 151 ; cities of the 
State, 154; around San 
Francisco Baj% 154 ; in the 
Sacramento Valley, 150; in 
the San Joaquin Valley, 
150; in the South, 150; See 
" Evolution of Southern Cali- 
fornia," 92; orange culture, 
100, 148. 

Cammas Prairie, Idaho, 195. 

Campbell, Douglass, 32. 

Carey, Senator J. M., 270. 

Carey Act, 193, 228, 270, 323. 

Carlsbad, New Mexico, 245. 

Carnegie, Andrew, quoted, 9. 

Carson Valley, Nevada, 213, 
216. 



352 



Carthaginians, 34. 

Chittenden, Captain Hiram 
M., 271. 

Churchill County, Nevada, 219. 

Cimarron River, New Mexico, 
240. 

City Creek, Salt Lake Valley, 
Utah, 51. 

Clark, Senator William A., 
190, 262. 

Clark's Fork of the Columbia, 
187, 234. 

Cleek, Samuel C, 143. 

Cody, Col. William F., 227, 
322. 

Coeur d'Alene Lake, Idaho, 
187. 

Colonization: — Three great 

eras of, 12; impulse of 
American movements, 12; 
settlement of Atlantic 
Coast, 14 ; movement be- 
yond the Alleghanies, 14; 
settlement of Mississippi 
Valley, 17; causes of emi- 
gration movements, 49. 

Colorado: — The New Day in, 
150; effects of railroad 
building, 151 ; scenery and 
climate, 153; mineral re- 
sources, 154; the Arkansas 
Valley, 106; the San Luis 
Valley, 166; the Western 
Slope, 167; the land of 
peaches, 169; local patriot- 
ism, 171; present economic 
tendencies, 172. 

Colorado Canyon, 248. 

Colorado Desert, 151. 

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 
163. 

Columbia River Valley, Wash- 
ington, 200. 

Comstock Lode, production of, 
218, 

Co-operation: — Influence of 

aridity in favoring, 31; 



INDEX 



comparison with conditions 
in Holland, 32 ; Utah com- 
mercial examples, 64; as em- 
ployed in the Greeley 
Colony, Colorado, 89; ex- 
perience of the Anaheim, 
California, settlers, 95; how 
utilized at Riverside, Cali- 
fornia, 97 ; California fruit 
exchanges, 104; necessity of 
co-operation in Arid Amer- 
ica, 328. 

Court of Private Claims, 240. 

Creoles, French, early settle- 
ment of, in Ohio Valley, 15. 

Crocker estate, work of, in 
California, 147. 

Cuba, 13. 



of, r, 



IITX- 



Dakota : growth 
gation in, 117. 

Damascus, effects of irrigation 
in, 41. 

Davis, Arthur P., 298. 

Deccan, lands of the, 30. 

Denver, Colorado, 165, 172. 

Department of Agriculture, 
co-operation with Reclam- 
ation Service, 302. 

"Desert, The," John C. Van 
Dyke's, quoted, 214. 

Douglas County, Nevada, 219. 

Drought, the great, of 1890, 
265. 



Eden, the garden of, result of 

irrigation, 42. 
Educational advantages in the 

West, xxiv. 
Eggleston, Edward, quoted, 50. 
Egypt, 34. 
Eight hour day in reclamation 

work, 296. 
Elephant Butte dam site, New 

Mexico, 240. 
Elko County, Nevada. 195, 218. 
Ellensburg, Washington, 203. 

2 A 353 



El Paso, Texas, Herald, quoted, 

259. 
" Emancipation," x. 
Emigration Canyon, Utah, 53. 
Esmeralda County, Nevada, 

219. 
Eureka County, Nevada, 219. 

Farms, statistics of, in the 

United States, 9. 
Fayoom, Province of, 36. 
Finney County, Kansas, 109. 
Flagg, Jack, in the Rustlers' 

War, 224. 
Flagstaff, Arizona, 248. 
Flathead River, Montana, 233. 
Fourier, Francois Marie 

Charles, 77. 
Fremont County, Wyoming, 

229. 
Fulton, Robert L., quoted, 218. 



22 



Montana, 



Gadsden Purchase, 
Gallatin Valley, 

233, 235. 
Gapen, Dr. Clarke, 340. 
Garden City, Kansas, 109, 113. 
Gates, George A., xxv. 
Geological Survey, organiz- 
ation of, 263. 
Gila River, Arizona, 248. 
Goldfield, Nevada, 213. 
Government reclamation proj- 
ects: 

Ana River, Oregon, 326. 

Bear Lake, Utah, 326. 

Big Bend, Washington, 327. 

Bellefourche, South Dakota, 
321. 

Bismarck, North Dakota, 
319. 

Boise-Payette, Idaho, 314. 

Bu ford-Trenton, North Da- 
kota, 319. 

Chewaucan, Oregon, 326. 

Chevenne, South Dakota, 
320. 



INDEX 



Dubois, Idaho, 324. 

Fort Buford, Montana — 
North Dakota, 315. 

Garden City pumping, Kan- 
sas, 324. 

Grand Junction, Colorado, 
324. 

Hondo, New Mexico, 318. 

Huntley, Montana, 316. 

Klamath, California-Oregon, 
311. 

Lake De Smet, Wyoming, 
327. 

La Plata, New Mexico, 325. 

Las Vegas, New Mexico, 325. 

Malheur, Oregon, 320. 

Milk River, Montana, 314. 

Minidoka, Idaho, 194, 313. 

Niobrara and Snake Rivers, 
Nebraska, 325. 

North Platte, Wyoming-Ne- 
braska, 316. 

Okanogan, Washington, 326. 

Otter Creek, Oklahoma, 326. 

Palouse River, Washington, 
322. 

Sacramento Valley, Cali- 
fornia, 144, 324. 

Salt River, Arizona, 308, 
323. 

San Carlos, Arizona, 323. 

Shoshone, Wyoming, 228, 
322. 

Shoshone Indian Reservation, 
Wyoming, 327. 

Silver Creek, Oregon, 327. 

Silver Lake, Oregon, 326. 

Strawberry Valley, Utah, 
326. 

Sun River, Montana, 325. 

Truckee-Carson, Nevada, 

316. 
Uncompahgre, Colorado, 

312. 

Urton Lake, New Mexico, 
325. 

Utah Lake, Utah, 326. 



Walker and Humboldt Riv- 
ers, Nevada, 325. 
Western Slope of San Diego 

County, California, 324. 
White 'River, Colorado, 324. 
Yuma, California-Arizona, 
153, 309. 

Grand Junction, Colorado, 168. 

Grand River, Colorado, 157. 

Great Falls, Montana, 237. 

Great Plains, rise of irrigation 
on, 106. 

Greel ey , Horace : — Ph al anx 

movement supported by, 77; 
encourages the Colorado 
project, 80 ; his last letter to 
Meeker, 90. 

Greeley Colony, of Colorado: — 
Its relation to the Phalanx 
movement of the forties, 77 ; 
Meeker proposes the under- 
taking to Greeley, 80; the 
colony plan compared with 
the Fourier ideal, 81; pub- 
lication of prospectus, 83; 
irrigation troubles, 84 ; tri- 
umph of the " Greeley po- 
tato," 85; social life in the 
Colony, 87 ; influence of 
colony on development of 
State, 90. 

Green River, Colorado, 168. 

Green, William Semple, 145; 
quoted, 146. 

Gregory, J. W., 268. 

Grunsky, C. E., 299. 

Hale, Dr. Edward Everett: — 
Connection with New Ply- 
mouth Colony, of Idaho, 
xvii, 191 ; quoted, xvii. 

Hall, Benjamin M., 298. 

Hall, William Hammond, 145. 

Hansbrough, Senator Henry C, 
280, 286. 

Harrison, Benjamin, quoted, 
281. 



354 



INDEX 



Helena, Montana, 236. 
Hilgard, Prof. E. W., quoted, 

33, 35, 37. 
Hinton, Richard J., 264. 
Hitchcock, Secretary E. A., 

298. 
Holland, compared to South- 
ern California, 92. 
Homestead law, effect of on 

emigration, 17. 
Honey Lake Valley, California, 

146. 
" Horse Heaven " country, 

Washington, 203. 
Hubbard, Elbert, quoted, 262. 
Hudson Bay Company, 189. 
Humboldt County, Nevada, 

219. 
Humboldt, Nevada, 216. 

Idaho: — The Crude Strength of 
174 ; contrast between north 
and south, 174; wonderful 
water supply, 175 ; forest 
area, 17G ; climate and 
healthfulness, 188 ; four 
periods in history of, 189 ; 
area and population, 190 ; 
resources and products, 190 ; 
prune district, 191 ; New 
Plymouth, 191 ; upper Snake 
River, 191; private reclama- 
tion projects, 193; prices of 
land, 194; central and north- 
ern valleys, 195; the "old- 
timer," 195. 

Illinois, growth of after Rev- 
olution, 15. 

Incas in South America, 34. 

Indiana, growth of after Rev- 
olution, 15. 

Industrial independence se- 
cured by irrigation, 43. 

Inyo County, California, 147. 

Iowa, growth of, 17. 

Irrigation: — Growth of the 
movement, xi; the miracle 



of, 41 ; Damascus the prod- 
uct of, 42 ; it made the beau- 
ties of the Garden of Eden, 
42; opposed to land monopo- 
ly, 43; as an insurance of 
crops, 43; unfavorable to 
employment of servile labor, 
44 ; influence on social life, 
45 ; foundation of scientific 
agriculture, 47 ; Mormons, 
the American pioneers of, 
55 ; comparative cost of pri- 
vate and co-operative sys- 
tems, 86; district law of 
California, 148; planks in 
political platforms, 273; 
congressional appropriations 
for, in the West, 275; his- 
tory of the movement, 361; 
practical methods of, Appen- 
dix I, 333; in humid 
lands, Appendix I, 333; 
for national irrigation. Na- 
tional Irrigation Congress, 
national irrigation law, and 
National Irrigation Associa- 
tion, see under "N"; for 
government reclamation proj- 
ects, see under " G." 

Irrigation Age, founding of 
the, 268. 

Irrigation conventions in west- 
ern Nebraska, 267. 

Jefferson, President, takes in- 
itiative in Western explora- 
tion, 23. 

Jefferson Valley, Montana, 
233. 

Johnson County, Wyoming, 
226. 

Jordan, David Starr; xxv. 

Kansas: — Growth of, 17; irri- 
gation in, 110. 

Kentucky, growth of after Rev- 
olution, 15. 



355 



INDEX 



Kennewiek, Washington, 203. 
King, Clarence, 2G3. 
Kootenai River, Montana, 234. 

La Plata Riveb, New Mexico, 

239. 
Lander County, Nevada, 219. 
" Lands of the Arid Region," 

Powell's, 27 L 
Lassen County, California, 

150. 
Leland Stanford, junior, uni- 
versity, 156. 
Lewis and Clark, the famous 

journej' of, 23. 
Libyan Desert, 36. 
Lincoln, Abraham, a type of 

the settlers engaged in a 

great era of colonization, 17. 
Lincoln County, Nevada, 219. 
Lippincott, Joseph Barlow, 

298; quoted, 145. 
Lovelock, Nevada, 216. 
Los Angeles, California, 103, 

156. 
Louisiana Purchase, 22. 
Lummis, Charles F., quoted, 

157. 
Lyon County, Nevada, 219. 

Madison Valley, Montana, 
233. 

Manhattan Valley, Montana, 
235. 

Manufacturers, persons em- 
ployed in, in the United 
States, 9. 

Maxwell, George H.: 272, 280; 
quoted, 279. 

Maxwell land grant, New Mex- 
ico, 240, 266. 

^McKinley, William, quoted, 
281. 

Mead, Elwood, 302. 

Meeker, Nathan Cook: experi- 
ence with Trumbull Phalanx, 
79; first trip to the Far 



356 



West, 80; originates Colora- 
do project, 80; death of, 91. 

Mesa City, Arizona, 250. 

Milk River Valley, Montana, 
233. 

Miller, Joaquin, quoted, xii. 

Milner, Idaho, 193. 

Mining, persons engaged in, in 
the United States, 10. 

INIinnesota, growth of, 17. 

Missoula, Montana, 237. 

Missouri River, in Montana, 
233, 236. 

Modoc County, California, 150. 

Moeris Lake, 36. 

Mogollon forest, Arizona, 256. 

Mohammedans, their admira- 
tion for Damascus, 42. 

Mondell, Representative Frank 
W., 288, 292. 

Mongolian labor prohibited in 
reclamation work, 296. 

Monroe, President James, 22. 

Montana:— The Prosperity of, 
232 ; influence of mountain 
topography, 232 ; early 
ditches, 233 ; opportunities 
for settlers, 234 ; fruit cul- 
ture, 235; agricultural col- 
lege, 235 ; important valleys, 
235; social and political 
life, 236; cities and towns, 
237. 

Moors, 34. 

Mormons : — their eommoai- 
wealth, 51 ; pioneers of Am- 
erican irrigation, 51 ; they 
illustrate the natural eco- 
nomic tendencies of irriga- 
tion, 52; arrival of first 
party in Salt Lake Valley, 
52; their system of land- 
ownership, 57 ; plan of di- 
versified farms, 61 ; opposed 
to mining, 63; financial re- 
sults of tlieir labors for forty 
years, 67 ; leading principles 



INDEX 



of their industrial system, 
70 ; mortgage indebtedness, 
71; relation of church or- 
ganization to industrial suc- 
cess, 74; settlers in San Luis 
Valley, Colorado, 1G7 ; in 
Uinta Country, Utah, 181. 
Musser, A. Milton, 67. 

National Irrigation — Rise of 
the cause, 261 ; in what 
States and Territories, 295 ; 
of private lands, explana- 
tion of, 305. 
National Irrigation Associa- 
tion, 271. 
National Irrigation Con- 
gresses: 
First at Salt Lake, Utah, 
1891, 268. 
Second at Los Angeles, Cal., 

1893, 269. 
Third at Denver, Colo., 1894, 

270. 
Fourth at Albuquerque, N. 

M., 1895, 270. 
Fifth at Phoenix, A. T., 1896, 

270. 
Sixth at Lincoln, Neb., 1897, 

270. 
Seventh at Cheyenne, Wyo., 

1898, 270. 

Eighth at IMissoula, Mont., 

1899, 270. 

Ninth at Chicago, 111., 1900, 

282. 
Eleventh at Ogden, Utah 

1903, 191. 

Twelfth at El Paso, Tex., 

1904, 241. 

National irrigation law: 276; 
controversy over authorship 
of, 287: provisions of, 295; 
text of Appendix II, 342. 

Nebraska: gro\\i:h of, 17; ir- 
rigation conditions in west- 
ern, 115, 267. 



Netherlands, the, civilization 
of compared with arid re- 
gion, 32, 

Nevada: — The Rising State of, 
213; gold fields, 213; popu- 
lar misconceptions of, 213; 
oases in, 216; prosperity of 
farmers, 216; climate and 
productions, 216; resources 
of various counties, 218 ; 
mineral wealth, 218; future 
of the State, 220. 

New Fork, Wyoming, 229. 

New Mexico: The Awakening 
of, 238 ; inadequacy of water 
supplies, 238 ; the northwest- 
ern counties, 239; land 
grants in, 240; the Pecos 
Valley, 242 ; climate and 
productions, 243 ; sugar beet 
culture, 244; pasture lands, 
245 ; Commission of Irriga- 
tion, 246 ; social fabric, 247. 

Newell, Frederick Haynes: — on 
water supply of the plains, 
113, 298; quoted, 210, 279. 

Newlands, Senator Francis G., 
276, 280; quoted, 288. 

Newlands irrigation bill. Ap- 
pendix II, 342. 

Nez Perce Indian Reservation, 
195. 

Nija, Fray Marcos de, 238. 

Nile River, silt in, 36. 

Ninety-seventh meridan 19, 2L 

Nordhoff, Charles, 123, 128. 

North, Judge, founder of 
Riverside Colony, 97. 

North Yakima, Washington, 
203. 

Nye County, Nevada, 219. 

Oakland, California, 155. 
Ohio, growth of after Revolu- 
tion, 15. 
Olive culture, future of, 134. 
Ontario, California, 103. 



357 



INDEX 



Opportunities in the West, 
xxii. 

Oquirrh Mountains, Utah, 53. 

Ordinances of 1787, 16. 

Oregon: — The State in Transi- 
tion, 205 ; transportation 
facilities, 205; population, 
205; bonanza farming, 206; 
humid and arid sections, 
207 ; need of irrigation, 208 ; 
climate and productions, 
209, 211; water supplies, 
210; central and eastern 
parts, 210; Lewis and Clark 
exposition, 212. 

Ostrich farm in Arizona, 256. 

Palestine, 34 ; resemblance to 

Great Salt Lake Valley, 53. 
Palmer, Gen. William J., 163; 

262. 
Palo Alto, California, 155. 
Palouse country, Idaho, 190. 
Parkman Francis, author of 

The Oregon Trail, 23. 
Pasco, Washington, 203. 
Payette, Idaho, 191. 
Pecos Valley, New Mexico, 242. 
Pend Oreille Lake, 187. 
Phalanx movement, 77. 
Phoenix, Arizona, 248. 
Pike, Zebulon, 23. 
Platte Valley, Colorado, 166. 
Plumas County, California, 

146. 
Plymouth Colony, Idaho, 191. 
Pomona, California, 103. 
Population of the LTnited 

States, growth from 1790 to 

1900, 10. 
Porterville, California, 148. 
Portland, Oregon, 209. 
Powell Irrigation Survey, 264. 
Powell, Major John Wesley, 

261, 264, 298. 
Prescott, Arizona, 248. 
Prescott, Historian, 34. 



Prickly Valley, Montana, 233. 

Private lands, government irri- 
gation of, 305. 

Professions, persons employed 
in, in the United States, 10. 

Prosser, Washington, 203. 

Provo, Utah, 177, 

Public lands, who may enter, 
303. 

Puget Sound, Washington, 
199. 

QuiNTON, J. H., 298. 

Railway mileage in the United 
States, 9, 10. 

Rain-making experiments, 108. 

Raymond, Henry J., debate 
with Greeley, 79. 

Reclamation Service, U. S. : 
first annual report quoted, 
265 ; board of consulting en- 
gineers, 298 ; organization 
of, 299; details of work, 
303. 

Redlands, California, 103. 

Reed, Thomas B., quoted 119. 

Reid, Whitelaw, quoted, 248. 

Reno, Nevada, 213. 

"Right Hand of the Conti- 
nent," Lummis's, 157. 

Rio Grande, New Mexico, 240. 

Rio Verde, Arizona, 249. 

Riverside Colony, California, 
97. 

Robertson, James, 15. 

Robinson, Solon, 79. 

Roosevelt, President: — First 
message, 283; quoted, 284, 
285. 

Roosevelt, Theodore: 201, 281; 
quoted, 259. 

Rosewater, Edward, 266. 

Roswell, New Mexico, 245. 

Rustlers' War, 223. 



Sacbamento, California, 156. 



358 



IHB D 'og 



INDEX 



Salt Lake City, Utah, plan of, 
58. 

Salt River, Arizona, 250. 

Salt River Valley, Arizona, 
248. 

San Bernardino Valley, Cali- 
fornia, 92. 

San Diego, California, 156. 

San Francisco, California, 154. 

San Joaquin Valley, Califor- 
nia, 140. 

San Juan River, Colorado, 
168. 

San Juan River, New Mexico, 
239. 

San Luis Valley, Colorado, 
166. 

San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt 
Lake Railroad ( Clark 
Road), 184, 213. 

San Timoteo Hills, California, 
92. 

Sanders, W. H., 298. 

Santa Clara Valley, California, 
138 

Savage, H. N., 298. 

Schools in the West, xxiv. 

Semi-arid region, boundaries 
of, 109. 

Sevier, John, 15. 

Shafroth, Representative John 
F., 275. 

Shawhan, Benjamin P., con- 
nection with New Plymouth 
colony, of Idaho, 191. 

Sheldon, Lionel A., 269. 

Sheridan County, Wyoming, 
226. 

Shoshone Falls, Idaho, 187. 

Smythe, William E. : — connec- 
tion with the New Plymouth 
Colony, of Idaho, 191 ; with 
rise of the national irriga- 
tion cause, 266 ; founds the 
Irrigation Age, 267. 

Snake River, Idaho, 186. 

Social life in Arid America, 



xxi; effect of irrigation on, 

46. 
Soap, natural, in Nevada, 220. 
Soils, effect of aridity on, 37. 
South America, 13. 
Soutliern California: evolution 

of, 92 ; character and future 

of, 1.39. 
Spice Islands, 13. 
Spokane, Washington, 204. 
Stewart, Senator William M., 

264. 
Stockton. California, 156. 
Storey County, Nevada, 219. 

Tabor, H. A. W., 172. 

Temperaments, eastern and 
Western, xv. 

Tennessee, growth of after 
Revolution, 15. 

Texas, irrigation in, 118. 

Thomas, Governor Arthur L., 
268. 

Tithing-house scrip, Mormon, 
63. 

Toltecs in Mexico, 34. 

Tonopah, Nevada, 213. 

Trade and Transportation, per- 
sons employed in, in the 
United States, 10. 

Travel, statistics of, 20. 

" Triimiphant Democracy," Car- 
negie's, 9. 

Truckee, Nevada, 216. 

Trumbull Phalanx, of Ohio, 79. 

Tucson, Arizona. 248. 

Twin Falls Land & Water Co., 
of Idaho, 193. 

Uinta country, Utah, 181. 

United States, condition of at 
close of Revolution, 5. 

University of Arizona, experi- 
ments in analyzing silt of 
Colorado River, 40. 

University of California, 155. 

Utah: — The Pleasant Land of. 



359 



INDEX 






175; the scene from Capitol 
Hill, 175; Utah, Salt Lake, 
and Webber Valleys. 177; 
mineral resources, 177; cli- 
mate, 178; agricultural con- 
tradictions, 179; lands open 
to settlement, 180; irriga- 
tion laws and customs, 182; 
construction of Lucin cut-off 
across Great Salt Lake by 
Central Pacific Railroad, 
184. 

Van Dyke, John C, quoted, 

214. 
Van Dyke, T. S., quoted, 128. 
Vermejo River, New Mexico, 

240. 

Walcott, Charles D., Di- 
rector of Reclamation Ser- 
vice, 298. 

Walla Walla, Washington, 203. 

Warren, Senator Francis E., 
270. 

Wasatch Mountains, 53. 

Washington: — The Giant, 197; 
climate and resources, 197, 
199, 202; capital for devel- 
opment, 197; strategic situ- 
ation, 197; population, 198; 
rainfall, 199, 202; Puget 
Sound, 199; arid region, 200, 
202 ; important streams, 
200; central and eastern 
part, 200; market for pro- 
ductions, 201. 

Washoe, Nevada, 219. 

Wealth, total in the United 
States, 10. 



Webber, Thomas G., 65. 
Wells, Governor Heber M., 



71. 



Wenatchee, Washington, 203. 

Western Pacific Railroad, 213. 

Western Slope of Colorado, 
167. 

Wheatland Colony, Wyoming, 
76. 

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, xxv. 

White Pine County, Nevada, 
220. 

Windmill irrigation in Kansas, 
111. 

Wisner, G. Y., 298. 

Women in the West, xviii. 

Woodruft', Wilford, 55. 

Worland, Wyoming, 228. 

Wyoming : — The Unknown 

Land of, 221; stock raising 
industry, 222, 229; Rustlers' 
War, 223; products and de- 
velopment, 226; Bighorn ba- 
sin, 227 ; irrigation develop- 
ment, 228; population, 229; 
coal, 230; excellence of wa- 
ter laws, 230. 

" Wyoming," saddle-horse pre- 
sented to President Roose- 
velt, 229. 



Yakima Valley, Washington, 

200. 
Ybarolla, Senor de, 105. 
Yellow River of China, 36. 
Young, Brigham, 72, 262. 
Yuma, Arizona, 248. 

Zion's Co-operative Mercantile 
Institution, Utah, 65. 



360 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



CONSTRUCTIVE DEMOCRACY 

The Economics of a Square Deal 

Cloth i2mo $1.50 net 

CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION — The Party of the Future. 

Paut I — The Face of the Times. 

The Evolution of Plutocracy — The Misrule of the Almighty Dollar 

— The Impotency of Political Parties — The Revolutionary Remedy 

— The Unripe Fruit of Socialism — The Points of Pressure. 
Part II — The Taming of Monopoly. 

The Principle of Constructive Progress — "A Square Deal for Every 
Man" — The Evil of Railroad Monopoly — The Common-Sense of 
the Problem — The Weakness of Proposed Remedies — Progress 
toward a Scientific Solution — Taxation of Railroad Monopoly — 
Doing Justice to Capital — Doing Justice to the Public — A " Super- 
human Task " — Preparation for Government Ownership — The 
Monopoly of American Industry — The Benefits and the Perils of 
Monopoly — Mr. Garfield's Propositions — The True Path to Indus- 
trial Consolidation — The Path Illumined by the Beef Trust — The 
Cotton Industry as an Example — The Organized Man with the 
Hoe — Labor's Crisis and the Way Out — The Natural Death of the 
Tariff Question — Repeopleizing the Proprietorship of Industry — 
The Incentive for Enterprise — " Whatever Tends toward Unity is 
True." 

Part III — The Surplus Man. 

The Wounded on the Economic Battlefield — The Definition — The 
Perpendicular Line — Plenty of Room at the Bottom — The Surplus 
Man at Bay. 

Part IV — The Unfinished Republic. 

The Surplus Man of the Past — The Field of Future Domestic 
Expansion — The Fitness of Western America — From the Stand- 
point of Commercialism. 

Part V — Institutions for Surplus Men. 

A Case of National Infidelity — The Rape of the Public Domain — 
The Irrigation Policy — Mobilizing the Surplus Man — The Logic of 
Co-operation — The Nation and the Moneyless Man — An Army of 
Peace. 

Part VI — The Summing Up. 

The Future of the Individual — Shall Religion Have a New Function ? 



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